Sample records for meister stefan werner

The article contains some recollections on Werner Callebaut highlighting his personal character and his role in the community of historians, philosophers and sociologists of the life sciences. Werner Callebaut (1952-2014) was a real European philosopher. He was the Scientific Director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI, Klosterneuburg, Austria) and the President of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology. PMID:26350077

Werner states are paradigmatic examples of quantum states and play an innovative role in quantum information theory. In investigating the correlating capability of Werner states, we find the curious phenomenon that quantum correlations, as quantified by the entanglement of formation, may exceed the total correlations, as measured by the quantum mutual information. Consequently, though the entanglement of formation is so widely used in quantifying entanglement, it cannot be interpreted as a consistent measure of quantum correlations per se if we accept the folklore that total correlations are measured (or rather upper bounded) by the quantum mutual information.

Stefan Meyer was one of the pioneers in radioactivity research and director of the Vienna Radium Institute, the first institution in the world devoted exclusively to radioactivity. I give here a biographical sketch of Meyer and of some of his colleagues and an overview of the research activities at the Radium Institute.

Considers the contributions of Heinz Werner to developmental psychology and identifies the tensions between Werner's theory and the practices of contemporary developmental psychology. Core issues of Werner's psychology concern: (1) development as heuristic, rather than phenomenon; (2) developmental process analysis; and (3) conceptions of the…

Attempts to provide increased understanding of the nature and function of mystical preaching as a distinctive form of discourse by investigating the sermons of the medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-ca. 1327, 1329). (MH)

This paper generalizes the Stefan-Boltzmann law to include massive photons. A crucial ingredient to obtain the correct formula for the radiance is to realize that a massive photon does not travel at the speed of (massless) light. It follows that, contrary to what could be expected, the radiance is not proportional to the energy density times the speed of light.

This paper generalizes the Stefan-Boltzmann law to include massive photons. A crucial ingredient to obtain the correct formula for the radiance is to realize that a massive photon does not travel at the speed of (massless) light. It follows that, contrary to what could be expected, the radiance is not proportional to the energy density times the speed of light.

Werner Heisenberg was one of the greatest physicists of all times. When he started out as a young research worker, the world of physics was in a very confused and frustrating state, which Abraham Pais has described1 as: It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair using Charles Dickens' words in A Tale of Two Cities. People were playing a guessing game: There were from time to time great triumphs in proposing, through sheer intuition, make-shift schemes that amazingly explained some regularities in spectral physics, leading to joy. But invariably such successes would be followed by further work which reveal the inconsistency or inadequacy of the new scheme, leading to despair...

We formulate a Stefan problem on an evolving hypersurface and study the well posedness of weak solutions given L1 data. To do this, we first develop function spaces and results to handle equations on evolving surfaces in order to give a natural treatment of the problem. Then, we consider the existence of solutions for data; this is done by regularization of the nonlinearity. The regularized problem is solved by a fixed point theorem and then uniform estimates are obtained in order to pass to the limit. By using a duality method, we show continuous dependence, which allows us to extend the results to L1 data. PMID:26261364

The symmetric Werner states for n qubits, important in the study of quantum nonlocality and useful for applications in quantum information, have a surprisingly simple and elegant structure in terms of tensor products of Pauli matrices. Further, each of these states forms a unique local unitary equivalence class, that is, no two of these states are interconvertible by local unitary operations.

The life of the Vienna-born writer Stefan Zweig, whose centenary will be on November 28th, 1981, is portrayed in the light of some external data. His works - mainly novellas - in which the theme of suicide plays a central role, are briefly presented, and his preference for describing psychological borderline and extreme states is stressed. One of his first poems and his last one - more than forty years lie between them - are discussed with reference to his depression and suicidal tendencies. Zweig, who at least since the First World war had been periodically suffering from depressions, was looked after and in a sense also treated by his first wife Friderike von Winternitz, until he had to leave his home in Salzburg in 1935. In 1939, he divorced from his wife and married his sickly secretary, Lotte Altmann, who suffered from asthma and depression. After prolonged stays in England, North and South America he settled in Petropolis near Rio de Janeiro in Brasil, where he spent the last months of his life. Zweig was the second son of a dominating, self-willed mother and a dignified, almost "motherly" father. He felt his childhood to have been constricted and hemmed in. His narcissism, which has played an essential role in relation to his suicide, has its roots in his childhood. Direct as well as indirect hints at suicide were not lacking during the last two years of Zweig's life, which were increasingly filled with depression and anxiety. The preface to his autobiography "The World of Yesterday" may be interpreted as an indirect announcement of suicide. On February 22nd, 1942, Zweig committed suicide together with his second wife in Petropolis. PMID:7034194

The paper deals with interdiffusion in a two-component fluid (also called binary or mutual diffusion) near isothermal equilibrium. The historical approach of Maxwell and Stefan, developed in an ideal gaseous mixture, is updated by introducing the chemical potentials of the components subsequently devised by Gibbs, which enable one to implement the Maxwell-Stefan picture of interdiffusion in an arbitrary fluid mixture. The pattern of the interdiffusion law reduces to Fick's in the high-dilution limit, but care should be taken of the reference frame in which the laws of diffusion are written. For a third-year university student, the assets of the modern Maxwell-Stefan description, besides its simplicity and inborn connection with thermodynamics, are (i) manifest Galilean invariance (the principle of relativity of motion); (ii) straightforward compatibility with fluid dynamics; and (iii) simple generalization to a multicomponent fluid in future, graduate-level studies. The value of the mutual-diffusion coefficient, which is not given by the macroscopic description, was calculated by Stefan in an ideal gaseous mixture and found to be independent of the composition. That independence is often observed in real mixtures and is taken as evidence against the mean-free-path account of diffusion. Yet a mixture of components of disparate masses shows a dependence of the mutual-diffusion coefficient on its composition, and we examine why Stefan's calculation can be invalid for this mixture.

What follows is a description of several activities involving the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law that can provide laboratory experience beyond what is normally found in traditional introductory thermodynamics experiments on thermal expansion, specific heat, and heats of transformation. The activities also provide more extensive coverage of and…

Over 40 renowned scientists from all around the world discuss the work and influence of Werner Heisenberg. The papers result from the symposium held by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Heisenberg's birth, one of the most important physicists of the 20th century and cofounder of modern-day quantum mechanics. Taking atomic and laser physics as their starting point, the scientists illustrate the impact of Heisenberg's theories on astroparticle physics, high-energy physics and string theory right up to processing quantum information.

Human fibroblast cells from two different progeroid syndromes, Werner syndrome (WS) and progeria, were established as immortalized cell lines by transfection with plasmid DNA containing the SV40 early region. The lineage of each immortalized cell line was confirmed by VNTR analysis. Each of the immortalized cell lines maintained its original phenotype of slow growth. DNA repair ability of these cells was also studied by measuring sensitivity to killing by uv or the DNA-damaging drugs methyl methansulfonate, bleomycin, and cis-dichlorodiamine platinum. The results showed that both WS and progeria cells have normal sensitivity to these agents.

We propose a theoretical scheme of quantum nondemolition measurement of two-qubit Werner state. We discuss our scheme with the two qubits restricted in a local place and then extend the scheme to the case in which two qubits are separated. We also consider the experimental realization of our scheme based on cavity quantum electrodynamics. It is very interesting that our scheme is robust against the dissipative effects introduced by the probe process. We also give a brief interpretation of our scheme finally.

We consider a nonlinear one-dimensional Stefan problem for a semi-infinite material x > 0, with phase change temperature T f . We assume that the heat capacity and the thermal conductivity satisfy a Storm's condition, and we assume a convective boundary condition at the fixed face x = 0. A unique explicit solution of similarity type is obtained. Moreover, asymptotic behavior of the solution when {h→ + ∞} is studied.

Werner's syndrome (WS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder, characterised by skin changes prematurely during adolescence. An unusual case of WS was found in a 27-year-old pregnant woman who presented to the hospital with a history of uncontrolled hypertension at 32 weeks of gestation. All clinical features corresponding to WS (early aging of skin, hair loss, blurred vision and diabetes type 2) appeared to match with the prospective diagnosis, which was confirmed later with genetic testing. The pregnancy became complicated due to oligohydramnios and therefore a caesarean section was carried out in order to preserve the fetus. Despite all implemented efforts, the patient died intraoperative as a result of cardiac arrest and its complications. Successfully, the newborn survived and it was further investigated to exclude this condition. PMID:24302663

By Nathalie Walker, Guest Writer Editor’s note: This article represents one student’s perspective on her experiences as a Werner H. Kirsten student intern. Failure isn’t just a possibility, it is a certainty; yet failure is what leads you to success. Above all else, that is what I will retain from my experience in the Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern Program (WHK SIP).

A 52-year-old man with Werner Syndrome (WS) was admitted to our hospital for the treatment of skin ulcers on his thighs. Routine chest radiography revealed an abnormal shadow in the left upper lung field. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a poorly demarcated homogeneous mass (diameter, 4 cm) in the S1 + 2 lung area; no pleural effusion was observed. CT-guided percutaneous needle biopsy revealed the presence of an adenocarcinoma. Other imaging studies did not reveal any lymph-node involvement or presence of metastatic lesions. The patient was diagnosed with stage IB adenocarcinoma (T2N0M0), and a left upper lobectomy was successfully carried out; postoperative wound healing was steady and uneventful, with no obvious ulcer formation. Primary lung cancers very rarely develop in patients with WS; non-epithelial tumors are usually observed in such patients. Patients with WS usually develop severe skin problems, such as refractory skin ulcers in the extremities; however, our patient did not develop any skin-related complications after surgery. As the expected lifespan of patients with WS is increasing, we need to pay attention not only to the rare non-epithelial malignancy, but also cancer. Further, the expected short lifespan of patients with WS, as well as the possibility of skin-related problems after surgery, should not be considered while deciding whether to take the option of surgery in the case of malignancy. PMID:20887625

The biography of the psychiatrist and neurologist Werner Villinger reflects the ambivalence of the history of German psychiatry during the first half of the twentieth century. Politically committed to the national conservatives, he was attracted by many elements of National Socialist (Nazi) ideology. Still, he joined the party rather late and reluctantly. Villinger was a eugenist by firm conviction. While he still argued against hasty legal regulation of eugenic sterilisations in the Weimar Republic, he strongly moved for translating the law on preventing hereditarily ill progeny into reality in the institution of von Bodelschwingh in Bethel. Since 1941, Villinger, who had become a professor for psychiatry and neurology in Breslau in the meantime, acted as an expert in the framework of the National Socialist "euthanasia" programme. At the same time, however, he supported the quiet diplomacy of Rev. von Bodelschwingh in his attempt to terminate the mass murder. Villinger was also involved in criminal experiments with human beings. After 1945, he successfully continued his career in the Federal Republic of Germany. He never confronted his past during the Third Reich. PMID:12430048

A thermodynamically consistent two-phase Stefan problem with temperature-dependent surface tension and with or without kinetic undercooling is studied. It is shown that these problems generate local semiflows in well-defined state manifolds. If a solution does not exhibit singularities, it is proved that it exists globally in time and converges towards an equilibrium of the problem. In addition, stability and instability of equilibria is studied. In particular, it is shown that multiple spheres of the same radius are unstable if surface heat capacity is small; however, if kinetic undercooling is absent, they are stable if surface heat capacity is sufficiently large.

Werner Syndrome (WS, ICD-10 E34.8, ORPHA902) and Atypical Werner Syndrome (AWS, ICD-10 E34.8, ORPHA79474) are very rare inherited syndromes characterized by premature aging. While approximately 90% of WS individuals have any of a range of mutations in the WRN gene, there exists a clinical subgroup in which the mutation occurs in the LMNA/C gene in heterozygosity. Although both syndromes exhibit an age-related pleiotropic phenotype, AWS manifests the onset of the disease during childhood, while major symptoms in WS appear between the ages of 20 and 30. To study the molecular mechanisms of progeroid diseases provides a useful insight into the normal aging process. Main changes found were the decrease in Cu/Zn and Mn SOD activities in the three cell lines. In AWS, both mRNA SOD and protein levels were also decreased. Catalase and glutathione peroxidases decrease, mainly in AWS. Glutaredoxin (Grx) and thioredoxin (Trx) protein expression was lower in the three progeroid cell lines. Grx and Trx were subjected to post-transcriptional regulation, because protein expression was reduced although mRNA levels were not greatly affected in WS. PMID:24799429

The ‘Werner gap’ is the range of relevant parameters characterizing a quantum state for which it is both entangled and admits a local hidden variable model. Werner showed that the gap becomes maximal for entanglement mixed with white noise if subsystems have infinitely many levels. Here we study pure entangled states mixed with simple coloured noise modelled as a single pure product state. We provide an explicit local hidden variable model for quantum correlations of some states of this family and provide hints that there is probably a model for all quantum predictions. This demonstrates essentially a maximal Werner gap already for just two qubits. Additionally to its fundamental interest, the study has implications for quantum computation and communication. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘50 years of Bell’s theorem’.

Pairwise quantum correlations in the ground state of an N-spins antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain are investigated. By varying the exchange coupling between two neighboring sites, it is possible to reversibly drive spins from entangled to disentangled states. For even N, the two-spin density matrix is written in the form of a Werner state, allowing identification of its single parameter with the usual spin-spin correlation function. The N = 4 chain is identified as a promising system for practical demonstrations of non-classical correlations and the realization of Werner states in familiar condensed matter systems. Fabrication and measurement ingredients are within current capabilities.

VIEW OF PIEDMONT AVENUE AND MEDIAN. REPLICATING WERNER HEGEMANN PHOTO TAKEN CIRCA 1909 SEEN FROM TRAFFIC CIRCLE AT CHANNING WAY LOOKING NW. Photograph by Fredrica Drotos and Michael Kelly, July 9, 2006 - Piedmont Way & the Berkeley Property Tract, East of College Avenue between Dwight Way & U.C. Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, Alameda County, CA

VIEW OF PIEDMONT AVENUE AT BANCROFT WAY, REPLICATING WERNER HEGEMANN PHOTO CIRCA 1909, SEEN FROM WEST SIDE OF PIEDMONT LOOKING NORTH. Photograph by Fredrica Drotos and Michael Kelly, July 9, 2006 - Piedmont Way & the Berkeley Property Tract, East of College Avenue between Dwight Way & U.C. Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, Alameda County, CA

Generalizing the two-qubit purification method of Bennett et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 722-725 1996), we present a three-qubit protocol, to purify partially entangled pairs of generalized Werner states, with application of controlled-not gates, projective measurements and Pauli rotations. The protocol is simple and recyclable and the fidelity of the purified states converge rapidly to 1, after a few cycles.

Due to the universality of blackbody radiation the constant in the Stefan-Boltzmann law connecting the energy density and temperature of blackbody radiation is either a universal constant, or built out of several universal constants. Since the Stefan-Boltzmann law follows from thermodynamics and classical electrodynamics this constant must involve the speed of light and the Boltzmann constant. However, a dimensional analysis points to the existence of an additional universal constant not present in the two classical theories giving birth to the Stefan-Boltzmann law. In the most elementary version this constant has the dimension of an action and is thereby proportional to Planck’s constant. We point out this unusual phenomenon of the combination of two classical laws creating a quantum law and speculate about its deeper origin.

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare congenital disorder of the Müllerian ducts in which there is uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina and unilateral renal agenesis. The most common presentation is an abdominal mass secondary to hematocolpos, pain and dysmenorrhea. However, in some cases, such as the one we present here, menses are normal due to an obstructed hemivagina, and diagnosis can be delayed. We describe evaluation and surgical management of a 13-year-old girl with this condition who was diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) scan and confirmed by pelvic ultrasound and surgical exploration, as well as a review of the literature. PMID:25992503

The psychiatrist and medical historian Werner Leibbrand resigned from the Berlin Medical Association after the seizure of power in protest against the exclusion of Jewish colleagues and lost both the license to practice as well as his professional position in the public health service. After the end of the war the American military authorities appointed him as expert witness for the prosecution in the Nürnberg Doctors Trial. In addition to a biographical review, Leibbrand's resolute although still undisputed attitude as ethical expert in the trials will be roughly outlined. PMID:23942580

The multiphoton states generated by high-gain spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) in the presence of large losses are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The explicit form for the two-photon output state has been found to exhibit a Werner structure very resilient to losses for any value of the nonlinear gain parameter g. The theoretical results are found to be in agreement with experimental data obtained by 'entanglement witness' methods and by the quantum tomography of the state generated by a high-g SPDC.

We study quantum strategies in games of incomplete information using a formalism of game theory based on multi-sector probability matrix. We analyze an extension of the well-known game of Battle of Sexes using an extended Werner-like state focusing in how its mixedness and entanglement affect the Bayesian Nash payoffs of the player. It is shown that entanglement is needed to outperform classical payoffs but not all entangled states are useful due to the presence of mixedness. A threshold for the mixedness parameter and the minimum entanglement value were found.

Salva and Tarzia, [N.N. Salva, D.A. Tarzia, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 379 (2011) 240 - 244], gave explicit solutions of a similarity type for a class of free boundary problem for a semi-infinite material. In this paper, through an elementary approach and less stringent assumption on data, we obtain more general results than those given by their central result, and thereby construct explicit solutions for a wider class of Stefan problems with a type of variable heat flux boundary conditions. Further, explicit solutions of certain forced one-phase Stefan problems are given.

Werner's syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by loss of function mutation in wrn and is a useful model of premature in vivo ageing. Cellular senescence is a plausible causal mechanism of mammalian ageing and, at the cellular level, WS fibroblasts show premature senescence resulting from a combination of telomeric attrition and replication fork stalling. Over 90% of WS fibroblast cultures achieve <20 population doublings (PD) in vitro compared to wild type human fibroblast cultures. It has been proposed that some cell types, capable of proliferation, will fail to show a premature senescence phenotype in response to wrn mutations. To test this hypothesis, human dermal keratinocytes (derived from both WS and wild type patients) were cultured long term. WS Keratinocytes showed a replicative lifespan in excess of 100 population doublings but maintained functional growth arrest mechanisms based on p16 and p53. The karyotype of the cells was superficially normal and the cultures retained markers characteristic of keratinocyte holoclones (stem cells) including p63 expression and telomerase activity. Accordingly we conclude that, in contrast to WS fibroblasts, WS keratinocytes do not demonstrate slow growth rates or features of premature senescence. These findings suggest that the epidermis is among the tissue types that do not display symptoms of premature ageing caused by loss of function of wrn. This is in support that Werner's syndrome is a segmental progeroid syndrome. PMID:27492502

In this work we study Podolsky electromagnetism in thermodynamic equilibrium. We show that a Podolsky mass-dependent modification to the Stefan-Boltzmann law is induced and we use experimental data to limit the possible values for this free parameter.

An exact solution of a heat conduction problem with the effect of latent heat of solidification (Stefan problem) is derived. The solution of the one dimensional Stefan problem for a finite liquid phase initially existing in a semi-infinite body is applied to evaluate temperature fields produced by laser or electron beam welding. The solution of the model has not been available before, as Carslaw and Jaeger [{ital Conduction of Heat in Solids}, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, New York, 1959)] pointed out. The heat conduction calculations are performed using thermal properties of carbon steel, and the comparison of the Stefan problem with a simplified linear heat conduction model reveals that the solidification rate and cooling curve over 1273 K significantly depend on which model (Stefan or linear heat conduction problem) is applied, and that the type of the thermal model applied has little meaning for cooling curve below 1273 K. Since the heat conduction problems with a phase change arise in many important industrial fields, the solution derived in this study is ready to be used not only for welding but also for other industrial applications. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}

Werner syndrome (WS) is the canonical adult human progeroid (‘premature aging’) syndrome. Patients with this autosomal recessive Mendelian disorder display constitutional genomic instability and an elevated risk of important age-associated diseases including cancer. Remarkably few analyses of WS patient tissue and tumors have been performed to provide insight into WS disease pathogenesis or the high risk of neoplasia. We used autopsy tissue from four mutation-typed WS patients to characterize pathologic and genomic features of WS, and to determine genomic features of three neoplasms arising in two of these patients. The results of these analyses provide new information on WS pathology and genomics; provide a first genomic characterization of neoplasms arising in WS; and provide new histopathologic and genomic data to test several popular models of WS disease pathogenesis. PMID:27559010

Inner-shell ionization cross sections used in Particle-Induced X-ray Elemental (PIXE) analyses are routinely calculated in the ECPSSR [W. Brandt, G. Lapicki, Phys. Rev. A 23 (1981) 1717-1729] theory and/or semiempirical formulas scaled to that theory. Thirty years after the passing of Werner Brandt, with recognition of his seminal contributions to other research on positron physics and stopping power problems, the work and articles that progressed into the ECPSSR theory for inner-shell ionization by protons and heavier ions are recalled as Brandt's past legacy to the PIXE community. Applications of the ECPSSR and its evolution into the ECUSAR [G. Lapicki, Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 189 (2002) 8-20] theory over the last three decades are reviewed with perspectives on Brandt's present legacy.

XRCC4-like factor (XLF) is involved in non-homologous end joining-mediated repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Mutations in the WRN gene results in the development of Werner syndrome (WS), a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by premature ageing and genome instability. In the present study, it was identified that XLF protein levels were lower in WRN-deficient fibroblasts, compared with normal fibroblasts. Depletion of WRN in HeLa cells led to a decrease of XLF mRNA and its promoter activity. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that WRN was associated with the XLF promoter. Depletion of XLF in normal human fibroblasts increased the percentage of β-galactosidase (β-gal) staining-positive cells, indicating acceleration in cellular senescence. Taken together, the results suggest that XLF is a transcriptional target of WRN and may be involved in the regulation of cellular senescence. PMID:24626809

Werner syndrome (WS) is the canonical adult human progeroid ('premature aging') syndrome. Patients with this autosomal recessive Mendelian disorder display constitutional genomic instability and an elevated risk of important age-associated diseases including cancer. Remarkably few analyses of WS patient tissue and tumors have been performed to provide insight into WS disease pathogenesis or the high risk of neoplasia. We used autopsy tissue from four mutation-typed WS patients to characterize pathologic and genomic features of WS, and to determine genomic features of three neoplasms arising in two of these patients. The results of these analyses provide new information on WS pathology and genomics; provide a first genomic characterization of neoplasms arising in WS; and provide new histopathologic and genomic data to test several popular models of WS disease pathogenesis. PMID:27559010

In a celebrated paper [Optics Communications 179, 447, 2000], A.O. Pittenger and M.H. Rubin presented for the first time a sufficient and necessary condition of separability for the generalized Werner states. Inspired by their ideas, we generalized their method to a more general case. We obtain a sufficient and necessary condition for the separability of a specific class of N d-dimensional system (qudits) states, namely special generalized Werner state (SGWS): W{sup [d{sup N}]}(v)=(1-v)(I{sup (N)})/(d{sup N}) +v|{psi}{sub d}{sup N}>={sigma}{sub i=0}{sup d-1}{alpha}{sub i}|i...i> is an entangled pure state of N qudits system and {alpha}{sub i} satisfies two restrictions: (i) {sigma}{sub i=0}{sup d-1}{alpha}{sub i}{alpha}{sub i}*=1; (ii) Matrix 1/d (I{sup (1)}+T{sigma}{sub i{ne}}{sub j}{alpha}{sub i}|i>

Present work is an attempt to compare quantum discord and quantum entanglement of quasi-Werner states formed with the four bipartite entangled coherent states (ECS) used recently for quantum teleportation of a qubit encoded in superposed coherent state. Out of these, the quasi-Werner states based on maximally ECS due to its invariant nature under local operation is independent of measurement basis and mean photon numbers, while for quasi-Werner states based on non-maximally ECS, it depends upon measurement basis as well as on mean photon number. However, for large mean photon numbers since non-maximally ECS becomes almost maximally entangled therefore dependence of quantum discord for non-maximally ECS based quasi-Werner states on the measurement basis disappears.

Werner Kolhörster belonged to the outstanding German scholars in cosmic ray and particle astrophysics, prior to World War II. But the wide fame of Victor F. Hess overshadows largely his merits nowadays.

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and Werner's syndrome are representative types of progeroid syndrome. LMNA (Lamin A/C) gene mutation with atypical Werner's syndrome have recently been reported. Atypical Werner's syndrome with the severe metabolic complications, the extent of the lipodystrophy is associated with A133L mutation in the LMNA gene and these patients present with phenotypically heterogeneous disorders. We experienced a 15-yr-old Korean female with progeroid features, generalized lipodystrophy, hypertriglyceridemia, fatty liver, steatohepatitis, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Skin fibroblasts from the patient showed marked abnormal nuclear morphology, compared with that from normal persons. Gene analysis revealed that this patient had T506del of exon 2 in the LMNA gene. We report here the first case of atypical Werner's syndrome with frameshift mutation that was caused by T506del. PMID:19270485

We demonstrate the generation of a Werner-like state from a single semiconductor quantum dot. The tomographic analysis with temporal gating brings us to a systematic understanding of the relation between the time evolution of quantum correlation and a set of parameters characterizing the exciton states, including fine-structure splitting and cross-dephasing time. The Werner state relates the Bell's parameter in the Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt inequality with a fidelity, which facilitates the evaluation of nonlocality.

On the base of the Holm model, we represent two phase spherical Stefan problem and its analytical solution, which can serve as a mathematical model for diverse thermo-physical phenomena in electrical contacts. Suggested solution is obtained from integral error function and its properties which are represented in the form of series whose coefficients have to be determined. Convergence of solution series is proved.

Comments are made on the ball lightning paper of Stephan and Massey [Stefan, K.D., Massey, N., 2008. Burning molten metallic sphere: One class of ball lightning? Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 70, 1589-1596] that describes their [`]welding drop' theory. An alternative theory is offered based on combustion inside an atmospheric vortex. The [`]vortex fireball' hypothesis has good explanatory capability in regard to published ball lightning properties.

This paper explores the mathematical formulations of Fick and Maxwell-Stefan diffusion in the context of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell cathode gas diffusion layers. The simple Fick law with a diagonal diffusion matrix is an approximation of Maxwell-Stefan. Formulations of diffusion combined with mass-averaged Darcy flow are considered for three component gases. For this application, the formulations can be compared computationally in a simple, one dimensional setting. Despite the models' seemingly different structure, it is observed that the predictions of the formulations are very similar on the cathode when air is used as oxidant. The two formulations give quite different results when the Nitrogen in the air oxidant is replaced by helium (this is often done as a diagnostic for fuel cells designs). The two formulations also give quite different results for the anode with a dilute Hydrogen stream. These results give direction to when Maxwell-Stefan diffusion, which is more complicated to implement computationally in many codes, should be used in fuel cell simulations.

Placed in the bottom of a vertical tube open at the top, volatile liquid (species 1) evaporates at a rate set by diffusion of vapour through the carrier gas (species 2). In the textbook solution, due to J. Stefan, species 2 is assumed to be stationary, but numerical solutions of the governing equations show that species 2, in fact, recirculates (Mills and Chang 2013; and references therein). But although Stefan's solution is based on an incorrect assumption, the same numerical solutions show that it predicts the evaporation rate to within a few percent (Mills and Chang, below eq.12). Assuming the ratio L / a of tube length to radius to be large, we use lubrication theory to give an elementary solution determining the velocity profiles for each species, including the effect of slip. It is shown that, in the limit as L / a --> ∞ , the Stefan solution correctly determines the total evaporation rate; this conclusion is independent of the precise form of the boundary condition placed on the species velocities at the tube wall.

Background: Uterus didelphys and blind hemivagina associated with ipsilateral renal agenesis are collectively known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS). In the literature, the syndrome often appears as a single case report or as a small series. In our study, we reviewed the characteristics of all HWWS patients at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) and suggested a new classification for this syndrome because the clinical characteristics differed significantly between the completely and incompletely obstructed vaginal septum. This new classification allows for earlier diagnosis and treatment. Methods: From January 1986 to March 2013, all diagnosed cases of HWWS at PUMCH were reviewed. A retrospective long-term follow-up study of the clinical presentation, surgical prognosis, and pregnancy outcomes was performed. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS, version 15.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). Between-group comparisons were performed using the χ2 test, Fisher's exact test, and the t-test. The significance level for all analyses was set at P < 0.05. Results: The clinical data from 79 patients with HWWS were analyzed until March 31, 2013. According to our newly identified characteristics, we recommend that the syndrome be classified by the complete or incomplete obstruction of the hemivagina as follows: Classification 1, a completely obstructed hemivagina and Classification 2, an incompletely obstructed hemivagina. The clinical details associated with these two types are distinctly different. Conclusions: HWWS patients should be differentiated according to these two classifications. The two classifications could be generalized by gynecologists world-wide. PMID:25591566

Population III (Pop III) stars can regulate star formation in the primordial Universe in several ways. They can ionize nearby haloes, and even if their ionizing photons are trapped by their own haloes, their Lyman-Werner (LW) photons can still escape and destroy H2 in other haloes, preventing them from cooling and forming stars. LW escape fractions are thus a key parameter in cosmological simulations of early reionization and star formation but have not yet been parametrized for realistic haloes by halo or stellar mass. To do so, we perform radiation hydrodynamical simulations of LW UV escape from 9-120 M⊙ Pop III stars in 105-107 M⊙ haloes with ZEUS-MP. We find that photons in the LW lines (i.e. those responsible for destroying H2 in nearby systems) have escape fractions ranging from 0 to 85 per cent. No LW photons escape the most massive halo in our sample, even from the most massive star. Escape fractions for photons elsewhere in the 11.18-13.6 eV energy range, which can be redshifted into the LW lines at cosmological distances, are generally much higher, being above 60 per cent for all but the least massive stars in the most massive haloes. We find that shielding of H2 by neutral hydrogen, which has been neglected in most studies to date, produces escape fractions that are up to a factor of 3 smaller than those predicted by H2 self-shielding alone.

Obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal anomaly (OHVIRA), also known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome, is a rare syndrome with only a few hundred reported cases described since 1922. Only a handful of these cases have been associated with pyocolpos. Mullerian duct anomalies have an incidence of 2–3%. While OHVIRA constitutes 0.16–10% of these Mullerian duct anomalies. Symptoms usually present shortly after menarche when hematocolpos develops during menstruation resulting in dysmenorrhea and a pelvic mass. The pelvic mass is the collection of blood products within the obstructed hemivagina. The first study in the diagnostic work-up is usually ultrasonography, which typically demonstrates a pelvic fluid collection which can simulate other disease processes thus confounding the diagnosis. MRI findings of the pelvis reveal a didelphic uterus. Imaging of the abdomen reveals agenesis of the ipsilateral kidney. MRI is beneficial in characterizing the didelphic uterus and vaginal septum for pre-operative planning. Understanding the imaging findings, in conjunction with the clinical presentation, is critical for early diagnosis in attempting to prevent complications such as endometriosis or adhesions from chronic infections with subsequent infertility. PMID:22690286

Obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal anomaly (OHVIRA), also known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome, is a rare syndrome with only a few hundred reported cases described since 1922. Only a handful of these cases have been associated with pyocolpos. Mullerian duct anomalies have an incidence of 2-3%. While OHVIRA constitutes 0.16-10% of these Mullerian duct anomalies. Symptoms usually present shortly after menarche when hematocolpos develops during menstruation resulting in dysmenorrhea and a pelvic mass. The pelvic mass is the collection of blood products within the obstructed hemivagina. The first study in the diagnostic work-up is usually ultrasonography, which typically demonstrates a pelvic fluid collection which can simulate other disease processes thus confounding the diagnosis. MRI findings of the pelvis reveal a didelphic uterus. Imaging of the abdomen reveals agenesis of the ipsilateral kidney. MRI is beneficial in characterizing the didelphic uterus and vaginal septum for pre-operative planning. Understanding the imaging findings, in conjunction with the clinical presentation, is critical for early diagnosis in attempting to prevent complications such as endometriosis or adhesions from chronic infections with subsequent infertility. PMID:22690286

We address an open question about the existence of entangled continuous-variable (CV) Werner states with positive partial transpose (PPT). We prove that no such state exists by showing that all PPT CV Werner states are separable. The separability follows by observing that these CV Werner states can be approximated by truncating the states into a finite-dimensional convex mixture of product states. In addition, the constituents of the product states comprise a generalized non-Gaussian measurement which gives, rather surprisingly, a strictly tighter upper bound on quantum discord than photon counting. These results uncover the presence of only negative partial transpose entanglement and illustrate the complexity of more general nonclassical correlations in this paradigmatic class of genuine non-Gaussian quantum states.

The contributions to this special issue of Chemical Physics report on new developments in the quantum-chemical calculation of electron correlation, relativistic effects and/or molecular properties. The 75th birthday of Professor Werner Kutzelnigg, which was celebrated a few months ago, triggered the idea to dedicate a special issue of Chemical Physics to these topics. The idea has been made real by the guest editors of this special issue together with, of course, the contributors. To the three research fields just mentioned, Werner Kutzelnigg has made important contributions throughout his scientific career, which becomes obvious when we go through the list of his 20 most-cited papers. We feel tempted to do so although Werner Kutzelnigg himself has expressed a rather critical attitude toward measuring scientific output with bibliometric tools [1].

We derive the quantitative modulus of continuity which we conjecture to be optimal for solutions of the p-degenerate two-phase Stefan problem. Even in the classical case p = 2, this represents a twofold improvement with respect to the early 1980's state-of-the-art results by Caffarelli- Evans (Arch Rational Mech Anal 81(3):199-220, 1983) and DiBenedetto (Ann Mat Pura Appl 103(4):131-176, 1982), in the sense that we discard one logarithm iteration and obtain an explicit value for the exponent α( n, p).

The classical one-phase Stefan problem (without surface tension) allows for a continuum of steady-state solutions, given by an arbitrary (but sufficiently smooth) domain together with zero temperature. We prove global-in-time stability of such steady states, assuming a sufficient degree of smoothness on the initial domain, but without any a priori restriction on the convexity properties of the initial shape. This is an extension of our previous result (Hadžić & Shkoller 2014 Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 68, 689–757 (doi:10.1002/cpa.21522)) in which we studied nearly spherical shapes. PMID:26261359

A classical laboratory experiment to verify the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law with the tungsten filaments of commercial incandescent lamps has been fully revisited, collecting a fairly large amount of data with a computer-controlled four-channel power supply. In many cases, the total power dissipated by the lamp is well described by a sum of two power-law terms, with one exponent very close to 4, as predicted by the radiation law, and the other very close to 1, as for simple heat conduction. This result was true even for filament surfaces with a shiny metallic appearance, whose emissivity should vary with temperature.

The development of organic and physical chemistry as specialist fields, during the middle and end of the 19th century respectively, left inorganic behind as a decidedly less highly regarded subfield of chemistry. Despite Alfred Werner's groundbreaking studies of coordination chemistry in the early 20th century, that inferior status remained in place - particularly in the US - until the 1950s, when the beginnings of a resurgence that eventually restored its parity with the other subfields can be clearly observed. This paper explores the extent to which Werner's heritage - both direct, in the form of academic descendants, and indirect - contributed to those advances. PMID:24983802

A Schur complement formulation that utilizes a linear iterative solver is derived to solve a free-boundary, Stefan problem describing steady-state phase change via the Isotherm-Newton approach, which employs Newton's method to simultaneously and efficiently solve for both interface and field equations. This formulation is tested alongside more traditional solution strategies that employ direct or iterative linear solvers on the entire Jacobian matrix for a two-dimensional sample problem that discretizes the field equations using a Galerkin finite-element method and employs a deforming-grid approach to represent the melt-solid interface. All methods demonstrate quadratic convergence for sufficiently accurate Newton solves, but the two approaches utilizing linear iterative solvers show better scaling of computational effort with problem size. Of these two approaches, the Schur formulation proves to be more robust, converging with significantly smaller Krylov subspaces than those required to solve the global system of equations. Further improvement of performance are made through approximations and preconditioning of the Schur complement problem. Hence, the new Schur formulation shows promise as an affordable, robust, and scalable method to solve free-boundary, Stefan problems. Such models are employed to study a wide array of applications, including casting, welding, glass forming, planetary mantle and glacier dynamics, thermal energy storage, food processing, cryosurgery, metallurgical solidification, and crystal growth.

Medieval medicine and pharmacy were the subjects of numerous researches. The enviable level of health culture and social care of the diseased and debilitated people of the Serbian medieval state was far advanced for the time. However, there are scarce written records of the conditions. The purpose of this paper is to point out the conditions which enabled the foundation of the first Serbian hospitals, development of scientific medicine and spiritual culture in medieval Serbian lands. Favourable conditions for the development of medieval medicine are linked with the arrival of the Nemanjić dynasty to the throne of the Serbian medieval state, i.e. Stefan Nemanja, and later with the life and work of his son Prince Rastko Nemanjić - Saint Sava. The wide field of activity of the Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja included the creation of stable and independent state ("the unifier of all Serbian lands") with a significant and shrewd political activity (vassal to Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenus, participation in great alliances against Byzantium), building of churches, defender of the Orthodox Christianity, foundation of the first Serbian hospital outside of borders of Serbian state in Hilandar monastery, social care about people and cultivating literary activity. PMID:22650117

A big honor for small objects: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was jointly awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy". This Highlight describes how the field of super-resolution microscopy developed from the first detection of a single molecule in 1989 to the sophisticated techniques of today. PMID:25371081

Solution of the heat equation in a spherical domain with two free boundaries (two-phase Stefan problem) when one of the subdomains degenerates at the initial time is considered. The use of conventional finite-difference methods in these cases is not expedient because of the degenerate domain. The solution is found in the form of combination of Integral Error functions series, [M. Sarsengeldin, and S. Kharin, Filomat, (2016), (in Press)] and then recurrent solvability of nonlinear algebraic equations for determining the coefficients of the series is proved. Such problems are of practical interest for the simulation of laser material processing as well for the modeling of thermal effects of electric arc that ignites during the opening of electric contacts [S. N. Kharin, and M. Sarsengeldin, ï£¡Influence of contact materials on phenomena in a short electrical arcï£¡, in Key Engineering Materials, Trans tech publications, Islamabad, Pakistan, 2012, pp. 321-329].

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a very rare congenital anomaly of the urogenital tract resulting from maldevelopment of both Mullerian and Wolffian ducts. It is characterized by the triad of uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. It generally presents at puberty shortly following menarche with the symptom of acute pelvic pain. Management of these cases is surgical and consists mainly of vaginoplasty with excision of the vaginal septum in order to release the obstruction and prevent the long term complication of recurrent pyocolpos and infertility. We report here a case of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome in a 13-year-old adolescent girl, emphasizing the role of imaging in the accurate and prompt diagnosis of this rare developmental urogenital anomaly. Only a few hundred such cases have been reported in literature till date. PMID:26155531

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome is characterized by a triad of uterine didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. The syndrome should be suspected in any young woman with abdominal pain or cyclic dysmenorrhea, and radiologic evidence of müllerian duct and renal anomalies. Herein is presented the case of a 25-year-old woman with a rare variant of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome, characterized by an anomalous connection between the 2 endocervical canals, who underwent hemivaginal septum resection to relieve progressively worsening dysmenorrhea. The right hemivaginal septum was resected medially from the left cervix and laterally off the right vaginal wall. Hydrodissection between the hemivaginal septum and right cervix facilitated surgical resection. After resection of the hemivaginal septum there was complete resolution of dysmenorrhea and no recurrence of hematometra or hematocolpos. PMID:24858986

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a very rare congenital anomaly of the urogenital tract resulting from maldevelopment of both Mullerian and Wolffian ducts. It is characterized by the triad of uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. It generally presents at puberty shortly following menarche with the symptom of acute pelvic pain. Management of these cases is surgical and consists mainly of vaginoplasty with excision of the vaginal septum in order to release the obstruction and prevent the long term complication of recurrent pyocolpos and infertility. We report here a case of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome in a 13-year-old adolescent girl, emphasizing the role of imaging in the accurate and prompt diagnosis of this rare developmental urogenital anomaly. Only a few hundred such cases have been reported in literature till date. PMID:26155531

This paper follows Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker during their fifty-year friendship from 1926, when they first met in Copenhagen, to Heisenberg's death in Munich in 1976. The relationship underwent profound changes during that period, as did physics, philosophy, and German society and politics, all of which exerted important influences on their lives, work, and interactions with each other. The nature of these developments and their impact are explored in this paper.

Multicomponent diffusional mechanisms in the ternary LiCl-KCl system are elucidated using the Green-Kubo formalism and equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The Maxwell-Stefan (MS) diffusion matrix is evaluated from the Onsager dynamical matrix that contains the diffusion flux correlation functions. From the temporal behavior of the correlation functions, we observe that the Li-Li and Li-Cl ion pairs have a pronounced cage dynamics that remains noticeably strong even at high temperatures. Even though the Onsager coefficients, which are the time integrals of the diffusion flux correlation functions, portray a relatively smooth variation across various compositions and temperatures, we observe a sign change and a divergent-like behavior for the MS diffusivity of the K-Li ion pair at a temperature of ˜1100 K for the eutectic composition, and at a KCl mole fraction of ˜0.49 at 1043 K. Negative MS diffusivities, while unusual, are however shown to satisfy the nonnegative entropic constraints.

Jožef Stefan Institute recently commissioned a high brightness H- ion beam injection system for its existing tandem accelerator facility. Custom developed by High Voltage Engineering Europa, the multicusp ion source has been tuned to deliver at the entrance of the Tandetron™ accelerator H- ion beams with a measured brightness of 17.1 A m-2 rad-2 eV-1 at 170 μA, equivalent to an energy normalized beam emittance of 0.767 π mm mrad MeV1/2. Upgrading the accelerator facility with the new injection system provides two main advantages. First, the high brightness of the new ion source enables the reduction of object slit aperture and the reduction of acceptance angle at the nuclear microprobe, resulting in a reduced beam size at selected beam intensity, which significantly improves the probe resolution for micro-PIXE applications. Secondly, the upgrade strongly enhances the accelerator up-time since H and He beams are produced by independent ion sources, introducing a constant availability of 3He beam for fusion-related research with NRA. The ion beam particle losses and ion beam emittance growth imply that the aforementioned beam brightness is reduced by transport through the ion optical system. To obtain quantitative information on the available brightness at the high-energy side of the accelerator, the proton beam brightness is determined in the nuclear microprobe beamline. Based on the experience obtained during the first months of operation for micro-PIXE applications, further necessary steps are indicated to obtain optimal coupling of the new ion source with the accelerator to increase the normalized high-energy proton beam brightness at the JSI microprobe, currently at 14 A m-2 rad-2 eV-1, with the output current at 18% of its available maximum.

A neonate with a prenatal diagnosis of left renal agenesis was born at 33 weeks gestation. A postnatal abdominal ultrasound confirmed the absence of the left kidney and revealed two non-divergent hemiuteri, consistent with the diagnosis of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome. During admission, significant axial hypotonia was noted, warranting additional investigations. Brain ultrasounds and MRI were normal, as were a preliminary metabolic study and comparative genomic hybridisation array. DNA methylation testing confirmed the diagnosis of Prader-Willi syndrome. The baby was discharged after 70 days, breast feeding and with modest hypotonia improvement. PMID:26491004

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS), characterized by uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis, is an uncommon combined Mullerian and mesonephric duct anomaly, and its presentation in adulthood is even rarer. We report here a 22-year-old female presenting with primary infertility where magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggested the diagnosis of HWWS with endometriosis. In a patient of infertility with endometriosis and unilateral renal agenesis, diagnosis of HWWS should be suspected and MRI is the investigation of choice for such anomalies. PMID:24347855

An enthalpy transforming scheme is proposed to convert the energy equation into a nonlinear equation with the enthalpy, E, being the single dependent variable. The existing control-volume finite-difference approach is modified so it can be applied to the numerical performance of Stefan problems. The model is tested by applying it to a three-dimensional freezing problem. The numerical results are in agreement with those existing in the literature. The model and its algorithm are further applied to a three-dimensional moving heat source problem showing that the methodology is capable of handling complicated phase-change problems with fixed grids.

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) is a rare congenital mullerian anomaly consisting of uterus didelphys, hemivaginal septum, and unilateral renal agenesis [1,2]. Most authors reported cases of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome with prepuberal or postpuberal onset with cyclical abdominal pain and a vaginal mass (3-8). Only six cases are reported in Literature with early onset of this syndrome under 5 years (9-14). Our case is about 3 years old girl, with all the features of this syndrome who came to our attention for lower abdominal mass. The aim of this article is to share our experience and focus the attention on the importance of high level of suspicion of HWWS in neonatal period to early diagnosis and treatment. The possible early presentation of this syndrome should be suspected in all neonates (females) with renal agenesia confirmed postnatally or with prenatal diagnosis. It is common, in fact, an error of evaluation with planning of removal of mass, that can damage patients in term of chance for a successful reproductive outcome. For all these reasons, our team consider HWWS as differential diagnosis in newborn with prenatal ultrasonography of a cystic mass behind the urinary bladder in the absence of a kidney and plan a pelvic ultrasound (with aim to identify an uterus, normal or dydhelfus, and presence or absence of pelvic mass), an examination under anesthesia and cystoscopy and vaginoscopy, if it is necessary. A high level of suspicion, indeed, is the key to early diagnosis. PMID:25932973

Atypical progeroid syndrome (APS), including atypical Werner syndrome (AWS), is a progeroid syndrome involving heterozygous mutations in the LMNA gene encoding the nuclear protein lamin A/C. We report the first Japanese case of APS/AWS with a LMNA mutation (p.D300N). A 53-year-old Japanese man had a history of recurrent severe cardiovascular diseases as well as brain infarction and hemorrhages. Although our APS/AWS patient had overlapping features with Werner syndrome (WS), such as high-pitched voice, scleroderma, lipoatrophy and atherosclerosis, several cardinal features of WS, including short stature, premature graying/alopecia, cataract, bird-like face, flat feet, hyperkeratosis on the soles and diabetes mellitus, were absent. In immunofluorescence staining and electron microscopic analyses of the patient's cultured fibroblasts, abnormal nuclear morphology, an increase in small aggregation of heterochromatin and a decrease in interchromatin granules in nuclei of fibroblasts were observed, suggesting that abnormal nuclear morphology and chromatin disorganization may be associated with the pathogenesis of APS/AWS. PMID:25327215

The formation of the first stars is an exciting frontier area in astronomy. Early redshifts (z ˜ 20) have become observationally promising as a result of a recently recognized effect of a supersonic relative velocity between the dark matter and gas. This effect produces prominent structure on 100 comoving Mpc scales, which makes it much more feasible to detect 21-cm fluctuations from the epoch of first heating. We use semi-numerical hybrid methods to follow for the first time the joint evolution of the X-ray and Lyman-Werner radiative backgrounds, including the effect of the supersonic streaming velocity on the cosmic distribution of stars. We incorporate self-consistently the negative feedback on star formation induced by the Lyman-Werner radiation, which dissociates molecular hydrogen and thus suppresses gas cooling. We find that the feedback delays the X-ray heating transition by Δz ˜ 2, but leaves a promisingly large fluctuation signal over a broad redshift range. The large-scale power spectrum is predicted to reach a maximal signal-to-noise ratio of S/N ˜ 3-4 at z ˜ 18 (for a projected first-generation instrument), with S/N >1 out to z ˜ 22-23. We hope to stimulate additional numerical simulations as well as observational efforts focused on the epoch prior to cosmic reionization.

Segmental progeroid syndromes are rare, heterogeneous disorders characterized by signs of premature aging affecting more than one tissue or organ. A prototypic example is the Werner syndrome (WS), caused by biallelic germline mutations in the Werner helicase gene (WRN). While heterozygous lamin A/C (LMNA) mutations are found in a few nonclassical cases of WS, another 10%–15% of patients initially diagnosed with WS do not have mutations in WRN or LMNA. Germline POLD1 mutations were recently reported in five patients with another segmental progeroid disorder: mandibular hypoplasia, deafness, progeroid features syndrome. Here, we describe eight additional patients with heterozygous POLD1 mutations, thereby substantially expanding the characterization of this new example of segmental progeroid disorders. First, we identified POLD1 mutations in patients initially diagnosed with WS. Second, we describe POLD1 mutation carriers without clinically relevant hearing impairment or mandibular underdevelopment, both previously thought to represent obligate diagnostic features. These patients also exhibit a lower incidence of metabolic abnormalities and joint contractures. Third, we document postnatal short stature and premature greying/loss of hair in POLD1 mutation carriers. We conclude that POLD1 germline mutations can result in a variably expressed and probably underdiagnosed segmental progeroid syndrome. PMID:26172944

Segmental progeroid syndromes are rare, heterogeneous disorders characterized by signs of premature aging affecting more than one tissue or organ. A prototypic example is the Werner syndrome (WS), caused by biallelic germline mutations in the Werner helicase gene (WRN). While heterozygous lamin A/C (LMNA) mutations are found in a few nonclassical cases of WS, another 10%-15% of patients initially diagnosed with WS do not have mutations in WRN or LMNA. Germline POLD1 mutations were recently reported in five patients with another segmental progeroid disorder: mandibular hypoplasia, deafness, progeroid features syndrome. Here, we describe eight additional patients with heterozygous POLD1 mutations, thereby substantially expanding the characterization of this new example of segmental progeroid disorders. First, we identified POLD1 mutations in patients initially diagnosed with WS. Second, we describe POLD1 mutation carriers without clinically relevant hearing impairment or mandibular underdevelopment, both previously thought to represent obligate diagnostic features. These patients also exhibit a lower incidence of metabolic abnormalities and joint contractures. Third, we document postnatal short stature and premature greying/loss of hair in POLD1 mutation carriers. We conclude that POLD1 germline mutations can result in a variably expressed and probably underdiagnosed segmental progeroid syndrome. PMID:26172944

4-Hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) is a reactive α,β-unsaturated aldehyde generated during oxidative stress and subsequent peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Here, Werner protein (WRN) was identified as a novel target for modification by HNE. Werner syndrome arises through mutations in the WRN gene that encodes the RecQ DNA helicase which is critical for maintaining genomic stability. This hereditary disease is associated with chromosomal instability, premature aging and cancer predisposition. WRN appears to participate in the cellular response to oxidative stress and cells devoid of WRN display elevated levels of oxidative DNA damage. We demonstrated that helicase/ATPase and exonuclease activities of HNE-modified WRN protein were inhibited both in vitro and in immunocomplexes purified from the cell extracts. Sites of HNE adduction in human WRN were identified at Lys577, Cys727, His1290, Cys1367, Lys1371 and Lys1389. We applied in silico modeling of the helicase and RQC domains of WRN protein with HNE adducted to Lys577 and Cys727 and provided a potential mechanism of the observed deregulation of the protein catalytic activities. In light of the obtained results, we postulate that HNE adduction to WRN is a post-translational modification, which may affect WRN conformational stability and function, contributing to features and diseases associated with premature senescence. PMID:25170083

Werner Heisenberg was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. He participated as a front rank actor in the shaping of a good part of XXth century physics and directly witnessed most of the intellectual struggles which led to what he called “Wandlungen in den Grundlagen der exakten Naturwissenschaft”. This expression is borrowed from one of the many talks and writings he devoted to the analysis of the scientific and philosophical implications of his, and his fellows physicists, findings. Indeed, Heisenberg's scientific activity increasingly reflected his more general intellectual views. This makes him another magnificent representative of a glorious linage going from the remote times of modern science to Einstein, Bohr and the like. This “philosophical” vein started early in his scientific life, and got stronger with time, prompted by the highly demanding scientific, but also social and political context of his mature years.

We ascertain, following ideas of Arnesen, Bose, and Vedral concerning thermal entanglement [Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 017901] and using the statistical tool called entropic non-triviality [P.W. Lamberti, M.T. Martin, A. Plastino, O.A. Rosso, Physica A 334 (2004) 119], that there is a one-to-one correspondence between (i) the mixing coefficient x of a Werner state, on the one hand, and (ii) the temperature T of the one-dimensional Heisenberg two-spin chain with a magnetic field B along the z-axis, on the other one. This is true for each value of B below a certain critical value B. The pertinent mapping depends on the particular B-value one selects within such a range.

The following short biography recalls Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Werner Schäfer, emeritus professor and director of the Medical Biology Department of the Max-Planck-Institut für Virusforschung in Tübingen and scientific member of the Max-Planck Society who died on 25th April 2000. He was one of the most distinguished pioneers of animal virology and one of the great personalities who since the Second World War have helped German science to regain its international reputation. In a brief synopsis the important results of his work on the viruses he used as models to conduct his research have been portrayed. As a result of Schäfer's scientific conception to gain insights into the functional characteristics of viruses by looking at their structure, the field of virology has taken new directions and founded a school whose pupils try to continue his successful and much honoured life's work. PMID:10955000

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare müllerian duct anomaly with uterus didelphys, unilateral obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. Patients with this syndrome generally present after menarche with pelvic pain and mass and, rarely, primary infertility in later years. Strong suspicion and knowledge of this syndrome are mandatory for an accurate diagnosis. A 14-year-old female patient presented with acute retention of urine and abdominopelvic pain. Her condition was diagnosed with the use ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging as a case of HWW syndrome. She was treated with vaginal hemiseptal resection. The HWW syndrome should be considered among the differential diagnoses in girls with renal anomalies presenting with pelvic mass, symptoms of acute abdominal pain, and acute urinary retention. PMID:24378860

Quantum information processing is largely dependent on the robustness of non-classical correlations, such as entanglement and quantum discord. However, all the realistic quantum systems are thermodynamically open and lose their coherence with time through environmental interaction. The time evolution of quantum entanglement, discord, and the respective classical correlation for a single, spin-1/2 particle under spin and energy degrees of freedom, with an initial Werner state, has been investigated in the present study. The present intra-particle system is considered to be easier to produce than its inter-particle counterpart. Experimentally, this type of system may be realized in the well-known Penning trap. The most stable correlation was identified through maximization of a system-specific global objective function. Quantum discord was found to be the most stable, followed by the classical correlation. Moreover, all the correlations were observed to attain highest robustness under initial Bell state, with minimum possible dephasing and decoherence parameters.

We redescribe Cyrtodactylus lateralis (Werner) on the basis of new specimens. Cyrtodactylus lateralis is a prehensile-tailed species, known from scattered lowland to mid-elevation localities in northern Sumatra. The prehensile-tailed Cyrtodactylus are more speciose and have a wider distribution than previously thought. This group includes a mainland SE Asian clade consisting of C. elok, C. interdigitalis, and C. brevipalmatus and an insular clade containing C. durio, C. lateralis, C. nuaulu, C. serratus, C. spinosus, and C. stresemanni. However, a distinctive color pattern in the Wallacean and Papuan species and uncertainty surrounding the type locality of C. stresemanni raise unresolved questions about the inclusiveness of the insular clade. DNA sequence data supports a close relationship between C. elok and C. interdigitalis, but also reveals that C. lateralis and C. durio are not closely related to these species. PMID:27394838

Werner syndrome (WS, MIM#277700) is a very rare autosomal recessive disorder. WS clinical signs include altered distribution of subcutaneous fat, juvenile bilateral cataracts, a mask-like face and bird-like nose, trophic ulcers of the feet, diabetes mellitus, and premature atherosclerosis. The habitus is characteristic, with short stature, stocky trunk and slender extremities. WS frequency has been roughly estimated to be 1: 100,000 in Japan and 1: 1,000,000-1: 10,000,000 outside of Japan. The only exception to the latter data can be seen in the clustering of WS in Sardinia. Since 2001, 5 new cases have been observed: 4 members of the same family and 1 sporadic case. Therefore, since 1982 the total number of cases described in North Sardinia amounts to 18: 15 are familial (11 members of the same family group) and 3 sporadic. A short clinical description of the 5 new cases is reported. PMID:17478382

The entanglement evolution of the bipartite quantum system which is initially prepared in extended Werner-like state under the influence of independent or collective noisy channels are investigated by solving the master equation in Lindblad form. With the aid of the concurrence, we find that the initial state can preserve more entanglement in certain region when it is transmitted through the collective Pauli σ x or σ y noisy channel than the corresponding independent noisy channel. For the Pauli σ z or the depolarizing channel, however, the collective decoherence can speed up the process of entanglement decay. Meanwhile, we show that the purity of initial state has a great influence on the region which the entanglement can be preserved.

Obstructive mullerian anomalies give rise to a spectrum of clinical presentations and are uncommon in routine gynecologic practice. The patient usually becomes symptomatic in early reproductive years. Recurrent pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, enlarging abdominopelvic mass, and abnormal vaginal discharge are the common presenting symptoms. We describe a rare case of a mullerian anomaly getting diagnosed 13 years after attaining menarche during the evaluation of postabortal sepsis. Patient presented 2 weeks following evacuation carried out for missed abortion, with acute abdominal pain, fever and foul smelling discharge per vaginum. The anomaly was identified as uterus didelphys with obstructed left hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis (Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome) complicated by pyocolpos. She was successfully managed by single-stage transvaginal septum resection under laparoscopic control. PMID:26085755

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is an uncommon combined müllerian duct anomalies (MDAs) and mesonephric duct malformation of female urogenital tract characterized by uterus didelphys and obstructed hemi-vagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis (OHVIRA) syndrome. We present a rare and unusual case of this syndrome in a 19 year-old female who suffered from hypomenorrhoea and abdominal pain. She had an obstructed hemi-vagina on right side which led to marked distention of ipsilateral cervix, while proximal hemi-vagina compressed the contralateral side causing its partial obstruction resulting in hypomenorrhoea. Understanding the imaging findings of this rare condition is important for early diagnosis in order to prevent complications which may lead to infertility. PMID:27123211

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is an uncommon combined müllerian duct anomalies (MDAs) and mesonephric duct malformation of female urogenital tract characterized by uterus didelphys and obstructed hemi-vagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis (OHVIRA) syndrome. We present a rare and unusual case of this syndrome in a 19 year-old female who suffered from hypomenorrhoea and abdominal pain. She had an obstructed hemi-vagina on right side which led to marked distention of ipsilateral cervix, while proximal hemi-vagina compressed the contralateral side causing its partial obstruction resulting in hypomenorrhoea. Understanding the imaging findings of this rare condition is important for early diagnosis in order to prevent complications which may lead to infertility. PMID:27123211

Uterovaginal duplication with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis is referred to as the Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome. A 17 year old woman presented with right pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea, present since menarche at 13 and worsening over the past year. Ultrasound examination revealed a right pelvic mass (5×5 cm), double endometrial echoes, and hematocolpos. A right pelvic mass, agenesis of the right kidney, double uterus, and blind hemivagina with hematocolpos were detected by magnetic resonance imaging and intravenous pyelography. A right tubo-ovarian abscess with dense adhesions and a double uterus were observed on diagnostic laparoscopy. Adhesiolysis was carried out and purulent material irrigated. After a course of antibiotics, a vaginal septum resection was performed and the pyocolpos drained. She remained symptom free after four months of follow-up. Prompt and accurate diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome can significantly improve the lives of sufferers and prevent future complications. PMID:24591910

The maximum lifespan potential is a constitutional feature of speciation and must be subject to polygenic controls acting both in the domain of development and in the domain of the maintenance of macromolecular integrity. The enormous genetic heterogeneity that characterizes our own species, the complexities of numerous nature-nurture interactions, and the quantitative and qualitative variations of the senescent phenotype that are observed suggest that precise patterns of aging in each of us may be unique. Patterns of aging may also differ sharply among species (for example, semelparous vs. multiparous mammals). Some potential common denominators, however, allow one to identify progeroid syndromes in man that could lead to the elucidation of important pathways of gene action. (The suffix "-oid" means "like"; it does not mean identity.) Unimodal progeroid syndromes (eg., familial dementia of the Alzheimer type, an autosomal dominant) can help us understand the pathogenesis of a particular aspect of the senescent phenotype of man. Segmental progeroid syndromes (eg. the Werner syndrome, an autosomal recessive) may be relevant to multiple aspects of the senescent phenotype. Some results of research on the Werner syndrome may be interpreted as support for "peripheral" as opposed to "central" theories of aging; they are consistent with the view that gene action in the domain of development (adolescence, in this instance) can set the stage for patterns of aging in the adult; they point to the importance of mesenchymal cell populations in the pathogenesis of age-related disorders; finally, they underscore the role of chromosomal instability, especially in the pathogenesis of neoplasia. PMID:3909765

The diffusion process in a multicomponent system can be formulated in a general form by the generalized Maxwell-Stefan equations. This formulation is able to describe the diffusion process in different systems, such as, for instance, bulk diffusion (in the gas, liquid, and solid phase) and diffusion in microporous materials (membranes, zeolites, nanotubes, etc.). The Maxwell-Stefan equations can be solved analytically (only in special cases) or by numerical approaches. Different numerical strategies have been previously presented, but the number of diffusing species is normally restricted, with only few exceptions, to three in bulk diffusion and to two in microporous systems, unless simplifications of the Maxwell-Stefan equations are considered. In the literature, a large effort has been devoted to the derivation of the analytic expression of the elements of the Fick-like diffusion matrix and therefore to the symbolic inversion of a square matrix with dimensions n x n (n being the number of independent components). This step, which can be easily performed for n = 2 and remains reasonable for n = 3, becomes rapidly very complex in problems with a large number of components. This paper addresses the problem of the numerical resolution of the Maxwell-Stefan equations in the transient regime for a one-dimensional system with a generic number of components, avoiding the definition of the analytic expression of the elements of the Fick-like diffusion matrix. To this aim, two approaches have been implemented in a computational code; the first is the simple finite difference second-order accurate in time Crank-Nicolson scheme for which the full mathematical derivation and the relevant final equations are reported. The second is based on the more accurate backward differentiation formulas, BDF, or Gear's method (Shampine, L. F. ; Gear, C. W. SIAM Rev. 1979, 21, 1.), as implemented in the Livermore solver for ordinary differential equations, LSODE (Hindmarsh, A. C. Serial

NaF-ZrF4 is used as a waste incinerator and as a coolant in Generation IV reactors.Structural and dynamical properties of molten NaF-ZrF4 system were studied along with Onsagercoefficients and Maxwell-Stefan (MS) Diffusivities applying Green-Kubo formalism and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The zirconium ions are found to be 8 fold coordinated with fluoride ions for all temperatures and concentrations. All the diffusive flux correlations show back-scattering. Even though the MS diffusivities are expected to depend very lightly on the composition because of decoupling of thermodynamic factor, the diffusivity ĐNa-F shows interesting behavior with the increase in concentration of ZrF4. This is because of network formation in NaF-ZrF4. Positive entropy constraints have been plotted to authenticate negative diffusivities observed.

It has recently been suggested (S.B. Giddings (2016) [2]) that the Hawking black-hole radiation spectrum originates from an effective quantum "atmosphere' which extends well outside the black-hole horizon. In particular, comparing the Hawking radiation power of a (3 + 1)-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole of horizon radius rH with the familiar Stefan-Boltzmann radiation power of a (3 + 1)-dimensional flat space perfect blackbody emitter, Giddings concluded that the source of the Hawking semi-classical black-hole radiation is a quantum region outside the Schwarzschild black-hole horizon whose effective radius rA is characterized by the relation Δr ≡rA -rH ∼rH. It is of considerable physical interest to test the general validity of Giddings's intriguing conclusion. To this end, we study the Hawking radiation of (D + 1)-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes. We find that the dimensionless radii rA /rH which characterize the black-hole quantum atmospheres, as determined from the Hawking black-hole radiation power and the (D + 1)-dimensional Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law, are a decreasing function of the number D + 1 of spacetime dimensions. In particular, it is shown that radiating (D + 1)-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes are characterized by the relation (rA -rH) /rH ≪ 1 in the large D ≫ 1 regime. Our results therefore suggest that, at least in some physical cases, the Hawking emission spectrum originates from quantum excitations very near the black-hole horizon.

The vacuum ultraviolet electron-impact-induced fluorescence emissions of H2 were studied for the Lyman and Werner band systems in the range of 120-170 nm, using an optical system containing a photomultiplier and a spectrometer, over an energy range from threshold to 400 eV. The emission cross sections for the Lyman and Werner transitions at 100 eV are determined. The cross-section ratio is in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations and experimental data for the optical oscillator strengths. The cross-section for cascading to the B state is stated as a percentage of the total emission cross section at both 100 and 300 eV, increasing substantially at 20 eV. The vibrational population distribution of the B state is found to be a function of electron-impact energy as the importance of cascading relative to direct excitation changes with electron-impact energy.

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare variant of Müllerian duct anomalies consisting of uterine didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. Patients with HWW syndrome are usually asymptomatic until menarche, when they present with acute lower abdominal pain. Here we report a case of a female newborn with right renal agenesis diagnosed during the pregnancy. The patient presented with a protruding mass over the vaginal introitus that was associated with an obstructed hemivagina and uterine didelphys. PMID:22348499

Luminous quasars detected at redshifts z > 6 require that the first black holes form early and grow to ~109 solar masses within one Gyr. Our work uses cosmological simulations to study the formation and early growth of direct collapse black holes. In the pre-reionization epoch, molecular hydrogen (H2) causes gas to fragment and form Population III stars, but Lyman-Werner radiation can suppress H2 formation and allow gas to collapse directly into a massive black hole. The critical flux required to inhibit H2 formation, Jcrit, is hotly debated, largely due to the uncertainties in the source radiation spectrum, H2 self-shielding, and collisional dissociation rates. Here, we test the power of the direct collapse model in a non-uniform Lyman-Werner radiation field, using an updated version of the SPH+N-body tree code Gasoline with H2 non-equilibrium abundance tracking, H2 cooling, and a modern SPH implementation. We vary Jcrit from 30 to 104 J21 to study the effect on seed black holes, focusing on black hole formation as a function of environment, halo mass, metallicity, and proximity of the Lyman-Werner source. We discuss the constraints on massive black hole occupation fraction in the quasar epoch, and implications for reionization, high-redshift X-ray background radiation, and gravitational waves.

Background Laminopathies, due to mutations in LMNA, encoding A type-lamins, can lead to premature ageing and/or lipodystrophic syndromes, showing that these diseases could have close physiopathological relationships. We show here that lipodystrophy and extreme insulin resistance can also reveal the adult progeria Werner syndrome linked to mutations in WRN, encoding a RecQ DNA helicase. Methods We analysed the clinical and biological features of two women, aged 32 and 36, referred for partial lipodystrophic syndrome which led to the molecular diagnosis of Werner syndrome. Cultured skin fibroblasts from one patient were studied. Results Two normal-weighted women presented with a partial lipodystrophic syndrome with hypertriglyceridemia and liver steatosis. One of them had also diabetes. Both patients showed a peculiar, striking lipodystrophic phenotype with subcutaneous lipoatrophy of the four limbs contrasting with truncal and abdominal fat accumulation. Their oral glucose tolerance tests showed extremely high levels of insulinemia, revealing major insulin resistance. Low serum levels of sex-hormone binding globulin and adiponectin suggested a post-receptor insulin signalling defect. Other clinical features included bilateral cataracts, greying hair and distal skin atrophy. We observed biallelic WRN null mutations in both women (p.Q748X homozygous, and compound heterozygous p.Q1257X/p.M1329fs). Their fertility was decreased, with preserved menstrual cycles and normal follicle-stimulating hormone levels ruling out premature ovarian failure. However undetectable anti-müllerian hormone and inhibin B indicated diminished follicular ovarian reserve. Insulin-resistance linked ovarian hyperandrogenism could also contribute to decreased fertility, and the two patients became pregnant after initiation of insulin-sensitizers (metformin). Both pregnancies were complicated by severe cervical incompetence, leading to the preterm birth of a healthy newborn in one case, but to a

Purpose. To examine the promoter methylation and histone modification of WRN (Werner syndrome gene), a DNA repair gene, and their relationship with the gene expression in age-related cataract (ARC) lens. Methods. We collected the lenses after cataract surgery from 117ARC patients and 39 age-matched non-ARC. WRN expression, DNA methylation and histone modification around the CpG island were assessed. The methylation status of Human-lens-epithelium cell (HLEB-3) was chemically altered to observe the relationship between methylation and expression of WRN. Results. The WRN expression was significantly decreased in the ARC anterior lens capsules comparing with the control. The CpG island of WRN promoter in the ARC anterior lens capsules displayed hypermethylation comparing with the controls. The WRN promoter was almost fully methylated in the cortex of ARC and control lens. Acetylated H3 was lower while methylated H3-K9 was higher in ARC anterior lens capsules than that of the controls. The expression of WRN in HLEB-3 increased after demethylation of the cells. Conclusions. A hypermethylation in WRN promoter and altered histone modification in anterior lens capsules might contribute to the ARC mechanism. The data suggest an association of altered DNA repair capability in lens with ARC pathogenesis. PMID:26509079

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) is a congenital Müllerian duct anomaly characterized by uterine didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. Little is reported about spinal deformity associated with this syndrome. This study presents a case of scoliosis occurring in the setting of HWWS and explores the possible association between the 2 diseases. A previously unreported scoliosis in HWWS is described. The patient is a 12-year-old Chinese female with scoliosis that underwent a posterior correction at thoracic 5-thoracic 12 (T5-T12) levels, using the Moss-SI (Johnson & Johnson, American) spinal system. At 24-month follow-up, the patient was clinically pain free and well balanced. Plain radiographs showed solid spine fusion with no loss of deformity correction. Six months after scoliosis correction surgery, the patient went to our clinics for the treatment of HWWS. She was performed a vaginal septum resection and detected with pyocolpos. Her follow-up was symptom free at the fourth postoperative month. The prevalence of scoliosis among patients with HWWS was 8.57% that is much higher than the incidence of congential scoliosis among general population (1/1000). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of HWWS with thoracic scoliosis. During surgery, surgeons and anesthesiologists must pay particular attention to the Müllerian duct anomaly and renal agenesis associated with HWWS. There is a potential association between congenital scoliosis and HWWS. PMID:25526433

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) is a rare congenital anomaly of the female urogenital tract that associates Müllerian duct anomalies with mesonephric duct anomalies. The triad of uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis characterizes this syndrome. Patients generally present with non-specific symptoms after menarche. Pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and palpable mass due to hematocolpos or hematometra are the most common findings. Pyohematocolpos and pyosalpinx may appear as acute complications, while endometriosis and pelvic adhesions constitute potential long-term complications. When a prenatal diagnosis of unilateral renal agenesis in newborn girls is known, a gynecological imaging study should be performed to exclude uterine and vaginal abnormalities. These patients should be followed up to ensure that a timely surgical correction is performed. The diagnosis of HWWS is difficult due to the lack of specific symptoms or findings upon physical examination. An accurate imaging description of these congenital anomalies is crucial to guide patients toward surgical treatment, relieving acute complications, and preserving the normal fertility. The authors provide a pictorial review of the magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography findings of the HWWS with correlation to embryological, clinical, and surgical features. PMID:25852048

Werner syndrome (WS) is a premature aging disorder that mainly affects tissues derived from mesoderm. We have recently developed a novel human WS model using WRN-deficient human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). This model recapitulates many phenotypic features of WS. Based on a screen of a number of chemicals, here we found that Vitamin C exerts most efficient rescue for many features in premature aging as shown in WRN-deficient MSCs, including cell growth arrest, increased reactive oxygen species levels, telomere attrition, excessive secretion of inflammatory factors, as well as disorganization of nuclear lamina and heterochromatin. Moreover, Vitamin C restores in vivo viability of MSCs in a mouse model. RNA sequencing analysis indicates that Vitamin C alters the expression of a series of genes involved in chromatin condensation, cell cycle regulation, DNA replication, and DNA damage repair pathways in WRN-deficient MSCs. Our results identify Vitamin C as a rejuvenating factor for WS MSCs, which holds the potential of being applied as a novel type of treatment of WS. PMID:27271327

Loss of WRN function causes Werner Syndrome, characterized by increased genomic instability, elevated cancer susceptibility and premature aging. Although WRN is subject to acetylation, phosphorylation and sumoylation, the impact of these modifications on WRN’s DNA metabolic function remains unclear. Here, we examined in further depth the relationship between WRN acetylation and its role in DNA metabolism, particularly in response to induced DNA damage. Our results demonstrate that endogenous WRN is acetylated somewhat under unperturbed conditions. However, levels of acetylated WRN significantly increase after treatment with certain DNA damaging agents or the replication inhibitor hydroxyurea. Use of DNA repair-deficient cells or repair pathway inhibitors further increase levels of acetylated WRN, indicating that induced DNA lesions and their persistence are at least partly responsible for increased acetylation. Notably, acetylation of WRN correlates with inhibition of DNA synthesis, suggesting that replication blockage might underlie this effect. Moreover, WRN acetylation modulates its affinity for and activity on certain DNA structures, in a manner that may enhance its relative specificity for physiological substrates. Our results also show that acetylation and deacetylation of endogenous WRN is a dynamic process, with sirtuins and other histone deacetylases contributing to WRN deacetylation. These findings advance our understanding of the dynamics of WRN acetylation under unperturbed conditions and following DNA damage induction, linking this modification not only to DNA damage persistence but also potentially to replication stalling caused by specific DNA lesions. Our results are consistent with proposed metabolic roles for WRN and genomic instability phenotypes associated with WRN deficiency. PMID:24965941

Werner syndrome (WS) is a severe recessive disorder characterized by premature aging, cancer predisposition and genomic instability. The gene mutated in WS encodes a bi-functional enzyme called WRN that acts as a RecQ-type DNA helicase and a 3′-5′ exonuclease, but its exact role in DNA metabolism is poorly understood. Here we show that WRN physically interacts with the MSH2/MSH6 (MutSα), MSH2/MSH3 (MutSβ) and MLH1/PMS2 (MutLα) heterodimers that are involved in the initiation of mismatch repair (MMR) and the rejection of homeologous recombination. MutSα and MutSβ can strongly stimulate the helicase activity of WRN specifically on forked DNA structures with a 3′-single-stranded arm. The stimulatory effect of MutSα on WRN-mediated unwinding is enhanced by a G/T mismatch in the DNA duplex ahead of the fork. The MutLα protein known to bind to the MutS α–heteroduplex complexes has no effect on WRN-mediated DNA unwinding stimulated by MutSα, nor does it affect DNA unwinding by WRN alone. Our data are consistent with results of genetic experiments in yeast suggesting that MMR factors act in conjunction with a RecQ-type helicase to reject recombination between divergent sequences. PMID:17715146

For the coherent understanding of heat acclimatization in tropical natives, we compared ethnic differences between tropical and temperate natives during resting, passive and active heating conditions. Experimental protocols included: (1) a resting condition (an air temperature of 28°C with 50% RH), (2) a passive heating condition (28°C with 50% RH; leg immersion in a hot tub at a water temperature of 42°C), and (3) an active heating condition (32°C with 70% RH; a bicycle exercise). Morphologically and physically matched tropical natives (ten Malaysian males, MY) and temperate natives (ten Japanese males, JP) participated in all three trials. The results saw that: tropical natives had a higher resting rectal temperature and lower hand and foot temperatures at rest, smaller rise of rectal temperature and greater temperature rise in bodily extremities, and a lower sensation of thirst during passive and active heating than the matched temperate natives. It is suggested that tropical natives' homeostasis during heating is effectively controlled with the improved stability in internal body temperature and the increased capability of vascular circulation in extremities, with a lower thirst sensation. The enhanced stability of internal body temperature and the extended thermoregulatory capability of vascular circulation in the extremities of tropical natives can be interpreted as an interactive change to accomplish a thermal dynamic equilibrium in hot environments. These heat adaptive traits were explained by Wilder's law of initial value and Werner's process and controller adaptation model. PMID:21437607

Summary Werner syndrome (WS) patients exhibit premature aging predominantly in mesenchyme-derived tissues, but not in neural lineages, a consequence of telomere dysfunction and accelerated senescence. The cause of this lineage-specific aging remains unknown. Here, we document that reprogramming of WS fibroblasts to pluripotency elongated telomere length and prevented telomere dysfunction. To obtain mechanistic insight into the origin of tissue-specific aging, we differentiated iPSCs to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and neural stem/progenitor cells (NPCs). We observed recurrence of premature senescence associated with accelerated telomere attrition and defective synthesis of the lagging strand telomeres in MSCs, but not in NPCs. We postulate this “aging” discrepancy is regulated by telomerase. Expression of hTERT or p53 knockdown ameliorated the accelerated aging phenotypein MSC, whereas inhibition of telomerase sensitized NPCs to DNA damage. Our findings unveil a role for telomerase in the protection of accelerated aging in a specific lineage of stem cells. PMID:24749076

Purpose. To examine the promoter methylation and histone modification of WRN (Werner syndrome gene), a DNA repair gene, and their relationship with the gene expression in age-related cataract (ARC) lens. Methods. We collected the lenses after cataract surgery from 117ARC patients and 39 age-matched non-ARC. WRN expression, DNA methylation and histone modification around the CpG island were assessed. The methylation status of Human-lens-epithelium cell (HLEB-3) was chemically altered to observe the relationship between methylation and expression of WRN. Results. The WRN expression was significantly decreased in the ARC anterior lens capsules comparing with the control. The CpG island of WRN promoter in the ARC anterior lens capsules displayed hypermethylation comparing with the controls. The WRN promoter was almost fully methylated in the cortex of ARC and control lens. Acetylated H3 was lower while methylated H3-K9 was higher in ARC anterior lens capsules than that of the controls. The expression of WRN in HLEB-3 increased after demethylation of the cells. Conclusions. A hypermethylation in WRN promoter and altered histone modification in anterior lens capsules might contribute to the ARC mechanism. The data suggest an association of altered DNA repair capability in lens with ARC pathogenesis. PMID:26509079

Progeroid syndromes show features of accelerated ageing and are used as models for human ageing, of which Werner syndrome (WS) is one of the most widely studied. WS fibroblasts show accelerated senescence that may result from p38 MAP kinase activation since it is prevented by the p38 inhibitor SB203580. Thus, small molecule inhibition of p38-signalling may be a therapeutic strategy for WS. To develop this approach issues such as the in vivo toxicity and kinase selectivity of existing p38 inhibitors need to be addressed, so as to strengthen the evidence that p38 itself plays a critical role in mediating the effect of SB203580, and to find an inhibitor suitable for in vivo use. In this work we used a panel of different p38 inhibitors selected for: (1) having been used successfully in vivo in either animal models or human clinical trials; (2) different modes of binding to p38; and (3) different off-target kinase specificity profiles, in order to critically address the role of p38 in the premature senescence seen in WS cells. Our findings confirmed the involvement of p38 in accelerated cell senescence and identified p38 inhibitors suitable for in vivo use in WS, with BIRB 796 the most effective. PMID:27136566

Progeroid syndromes show features of accelerated ageing and are used as models for human ageing, of which Werner syndrome (WS) is one of the most widely studied. WS fibroblasts show accelerated senescence that may result from p38 MAP kinase activation since it is prevented by the p38 inhibitor SB203580. Thus, small molecule inhibition of p38-signalling may be a therapeutic strategy for WS. To develop this approach issues such as the in vivo toxicity and kinase selectivity of existing p38 inhibitors need to be addressed, so as to strengthen the evidence that p38 itself plays a critical role in mediating the effect of SB203580, and to find an inhibitor suitable for in vivo use. In this work we used a panel of different p38 inhibitors selected for: (1) having been used successfully in vivo in either animal models or human clinical trials; (2) different modes of binding to p38; and (3) different off-target kinase specificity profiles, in order to critically address the role of p38 in the premature senescence seen in WS cells. Our findings confirmed the involvement of p38 in accelerated cell senescence and identified p38 inhibitors suitable for in vivo use in WS, with BIRB 796 the most effective. PMID:27136566

The organic component of the vapor phase of a porous medium contaminated by an immiscible organic liquid can be significant enough to violate the condition of a dilute species diffusing in a bulk phase assumed by Fick's Law. The Stefan-Maxwell equations provide a more comprehensive model for quantifying steady state transport for a vapor phase composed of arbitrary proportions of its constituents. The application of both types of models to the analysis of column experiments demonstrates that use of a Fickian-based transport model can lead to significant overestimates of soil tortuosity constants. Further, the physical displacement of naturally occurring gases (e.g., O{sub 2}), predicted by the Stefan-Maxwell model but not by application of Fick's Law, can be attributed improperly to a sink term such as microbial degradation in a Fickian-based transport model.

Fickian, Stefan-Maxwell and dusty-gas model have been widely used in modeling mass transfer in porous electrodes of solid oxide fuel cells. Suwanwarangkul et al. (J. Power Sources 122 (2003) 9-18) implement a survey for performance comparison among these models to predict the concentration overpotential of a solid oxide fuel cell anode. In their work, the flux ratio of species is calculated by Graham's law and contradictorily the equimolar counter transport is used for isobaric assumption. Focused on the flux-ratio approaches and usually neglected pressure gradient, a comparison between Fickian, Stefan-Maxwell and dusty-gas model is done again in this article. The dusty gas model combined with the 'Stoich' flux-ratio approach, i.e. the species flux is dictated by its stoichiometry of the electrochemical reaction, is validated to make the best performance. And all models by the 'Graham' flux-ratio approach, i.e. the flux of species satisfies Graham's law, underestimate the concentration overpotential when the molecular weights of species are quite different. The extended Stefan-Maxwell model is an alternative, although it generally exaggerates the role of Knudsen diffusion. The effect of pore size on the Knudsen diffusion and pressure gradient is also discussed.

Applying Green–Kubo formalism and equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we have studied the dynamic correlation, Onsager coeeficients and Maxwell–Stefan (MS) Diffusivities of molten salt LiF-BeF{sub 2}, which is used as coolant in high temperature reactor. All the diffusive flux correlations show back-scattering or cage dynamics which becomes pronouced at higher temperature. Although the MS diffusivities are expected to depend very lightly on the composition due to decoupling of thermodynamic factor, the diffusivity Đ{sub Li-F} and Đ{sub Be-F} decreases sharply for higher concentration of LiF and BeF{sub 2} respectively. Interestingly, all three MS diffusivities have highest magnitude for eutectic mixture at 1000K (except Đ{sub Be-F} at lower LiF mole fraction) which is desirable from coolant point of view. Although the diffusivity for positive-positive ion pair is negative it is not in violation of the second law of thermodynamics as it satisfies the non-negative entropic constraints.

In this work our main objective is to compute Dynamical correlations, Onsager coefficients and Maxwell-Stefan (MS) diffusivities for molten salt LiF-KF mixture at various thermodynamic states through Green-Kubo formalism for the first time. The equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed using BHM potential for LiF-KF mixture. The velocity autocorrelations functions involving Li ions reflect the endurance of cage dynamics or backscattering with temperature. The magnitude of Onsager coefficients for all pairs increases with increase in temperature. Interestingly most of the Onsager coefficients has almost maximum magnitude at the eutectic composition indicating the most dynamic character of the eutectic mixture. MS diffusivity hence diffusion for all ion pairs increases in the system with increasing temperature. Smooth variation of the diffusivity values denies any network formation in the mixture. Also, the striking feature is the noticeable concentration dependence of MS diffusivity between cation-cation pair, ĐLi-K which remains negative for most of the concentration range but changes sign to become positive for higher LiF concentration. The negative MS diffusivity is acceptable as it satisfies the non-negative entropy constraint governed by 2nd law of thermodynamics. This high diffusivity also vouches the candidature of molten salt as a coolant.

Decontamination of polymers exposed to chemical warfare agents (CWA) often proceeds by application of a liquid solution. Absorption of some decontaminant components proceed concurrently with extraction of the CWA, resulting in multicomponent diffusion in the polymer. In this work, the Maxwell-Stefan equations were used with the Flory-Huggins model of species activity to mathematically describe the transport of two species within a polymer. This model was used to predict the extraction of the nerve agent O-ethyl S-[2(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothioate (VX) from a silicone elastomer into both water and methanol. Comparisons with experimental results show good agreement with minimal fitting of model parameters from pure component uptake data. Reaction of the extracted VX with sodium hydroxide in the liquid-phase was also modeled and used to predict the overall rate of destruction of VX. Although the reaction proceeds more slowly in the methanol-based solution compared to the aqueous solution, the extraction rate is faster due to increasing VX mobility as methanol absorbs into the silicone, resulting in an overall faster rate of VX destruction.

A Müser-type engine model can be taken as a particular case of a Curzon-Ahlborn thermal cycle, when the upper thermal conductance is finite and the lower one is infinite. In addition, the upper heat exchange is given by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. That model is suitable to thermodynamically describe some aspects of energy converters as solar cells and photosynthetic systems. In the present article, we call n-Müser engine to an engine of the Müser type in which the T4 heat transfer law is substituted by a Tn-law, being n > 0 a real number. Here, we show that if we use the so-called ecological criterion of merit to optimize finite-time heat engines to compare the thermodynamic performance of the n-Müser engines under approximate terrestrial conditions (see below), we obtain that n = 4 accomplishes the best performance. This same result was obtained by using data from the rest of planets of the solar system.

Two PhD theses (Alexander Gordienko, 1912; Johannes Angerstein, 1914) and a dissertation in partial fulfillment of a PhD thesis (H. S. French, Zurich, 1914) are reviewed that deal with hitherto unpublished UV-vis spectroscopy work of coordination compounds in the group of Alfred Werner. The method of measurement of UV-vis spectra at Alfred Werner's time is described in detail. Examples of spectra of complexes are given, which were partly interpreted in terms of structure (cis ↔ trans configuration, counting number of bands for structural relationships, and shift of general spectral features by consecutive replacement of ligands). A more complete interpretation of spectra was hampered at Alfred Werner's time by the lack of a light absorption theory and a correct theory of electron excitation, and the lack of a ligand field theory for coordination compounds. The experimentally difficult data acquisitions and the difficult spectral interpretations might have been reasons why this method did not experience a breakthrough in Alfred Werner's group to play a more prominent role as an important analytical method. Nevertheless the application of UV-vis spectroscopy on coordination compounds was unique and novel, and witnesses Alfred Werner's great aptitude and keenness to always try and go beyond conventional practice. PMID:24983805

Swiss microbial geneticist, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans for their discovery of restriction endonucleases. Werner Arber was born in Granichen, Switzerland in 1929. Following a public school education, he entered the Swiss Polytechnical School in Zurich in 1949, working toward a diploma in natural sciences. There, his first research experience involved isolating and characterizing an isomer of chlorine. Following graduation in 1953, Arber joined a graduate program at the University of Geneva, taking on an assistanceship in electron microscopy (EM), in which he studied gene transfer in the bacterial virus (bacteriophage) lambda. Eventually encountering limitations with EM as a tool, he began using microbial genetics as a methodology for his studies. The study of microbial genetics had been possible for a relatively short time: DNA had been discovered to carry genetic information only a decade before he d entered the field. After earning his Ph.D. in 1958, Arber continued to develop skills in microbial genetics, working with colleagues in the United States for a short time before returning to Geneva at beginning of 1960. There, he continued working on lambda transduction in E. coli, but found that the virus would not efficiently propagate. Recalling research done seven years earlier by Joe Bertani and Jean Weigle on "host-controlled restriction-modification", he realized there must be a host-controlled modification of the invading DNA, and sought to identify the mechanism. Based on Grete Kallengerger s work that demonstrated degradation of both irradiated and non-irradiated phage lambda following injection in a host, Arber and his graduate student, Daisy Dussoix further investigated the fate of DNA, and found that restriction and modification (later determined to be postreplicative nuclotide methylation) directly affected DNA, but did not cause mutations. They also found that theses were

Swiss microbial geneticist, Werner Arber shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans for their discovery of restriction endonucleases. Werner Arber was born in Granichen, Switzerland in 1929. Following a public school education, he entered the Swiss Polytechnical School in Zurich in 1949, working toward a diploma in natural sciences. There, his first research experience involved isolating and characterizing an isomer of chlorine. Following graduation in 1953, Arber joined a graduate program at the University of Geneva, taking on an assistanceship in electron microscopy (EM), in which he studied gene transfer in the bacterial virus (bacteriophage) lambda. Eventually encountering limitations with EM as a tool, he began using microbial genetics as a methodology for his studies. The study of microbial genetics had been possible for a relatively short time: DNA had been discovered to carry genetic information only a decade before he d entered the field. After earning his Ph.D. in 1958, Arber continued to develop skills in microbial genetics, working with colleagues in the United States for a short time before returning to Geneva at beginning of 1960. There, he continued working on lambda transduction in E. coli, but found that the virus would not efficiently propagate. Recalling research done seven years earlier by Joe Bertani and Jean Weigle on "host-controlled restriction-modification", he realized there must be a host-controlled modification of the invading DNA, and sought to identify the mechanism. Based on Grete Kallengerger s work that demonstrated degradation of both irradiated and non-irradiated phage lambda following injection in a host, Arber and his graduate student, Daisy Dussoix further investigated the fate of DNA, and found that restriction and modification (later determined to be postreplicative nuclotide methylation) directly affected DNA, but did not cause mutations. They also found that theses were

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive disease with a complex phenotype that is suggestive of accelerated aging. WS is caused by mutations in a gene, WRN, that encodes a predicted 1,432-amino-acid protein with homology to DNA and RNA helicases. Previous work identified four WS mutations in the 3{prime} end of the gene, which resulted in predicted truncated protein products of 1,060-1,247 amino acids but did not disrupt the helicase domain region (amino acids 569-859). Here, additional WS subjects were screened for mutations, and the intron-exon structure of the gene was determined. A total of 35 exons were defined, with the coding sequences beginning in the second exon. Five new WS mutations were identified: two nonsense mutations at codons 369 and 889; a mutation at a splice-junction site, resulting in a predicted truncated protein of 760 amino acids; a 1-bp deletion causing a frameshift; and a predicted truncated protein of 391 amino acids. Another deletion is >15 kb of genomic DNA, including exons 19-23; the predicted protein is 1,186 amino acids long. Four of these new mutations either partially disrupt the helicase domain region or result in predicted protein products completely missing the helicase region. These results confirm that mutations in the WRN gene are responsible for WS. Also, the location of the mutations indicates that the presence or absence of the helicase domain does not influence the WS phenotype and suggests that WS is the result of complete loss of function of the WRN gene product. 63 refs., 1 fig., 5 tabs.

Members of the RecQ family of helicases are known for their roles in DNA repair, replication, and recombination. Mutations in the human RecQ helicases, WRN and BLM, cause Werner and Bloom syndromes, which are diseases characterized by genome instability and an increased risk of cancer. While WRN contains both a helicase and an exonuclease domain, the Drosophila melanogaster homolog, WRNexo, contains only the exonuclease domain. Therefore the Drosophila model system provides a unique opportunity to study the exonuclease functions of WRN separate from the helicase. We created a null allele of WRNexo via imprecise P-element excision. The null WRNexo mutants are not sensitive to double-strand break-inducing reagents, suggesting that the exonuclease does not play a key role in homologous recombination-mediated repair of DSBs. However, WRNexo mutant embryos have a reduced hatching frequency and larvae are sensitive to the replication fork-stalling reagent, hydroxyurea (HU), suggesting that WRNexo is important in responding to replication stress. The role of WRNexo in the HU-induced stress response is independent of Rad51. Interestingly, the hatching defect and HU sensitivity of WRNexo mutants do not occur in flies containing an exonuclease-dead copy of WRNexo, suggesting that the role of WRNexo in replication is independent of exonuclease activity. Additionally, WRNexo and Blm mutants exhibit similar sensitivity to HU and synthetic lethality in combination with mutations in structure-selective endonucleases. We propose that WRNexo and BLM interact to promote fork reversal following replication fork stalling and in their absence regressed forks are restarted through a Rad51-mediated process. PMID:24709634

Age-associated minor inflammation: inflammageing may explain human ageing mechanism(s). Our previous study reported a significant increase in the serum level of highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) with normal ageing and the patients with Werner syndrome (WS). To further study the minor inflammatory condition associated with ageing, another possible ageing biomarker: matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) was examined in the sera from 217 normal Japanese individuals aged between 1 and 100 years and 41 mutation-proven Japanese WS aged between 32 and 70 years. MMP9 was assayed by ELISA. The serum level of MMP9 was elevated significantly (p < 0.001) with normal ageing from both sexes as hsCRP. In contrast to normal ageing, the serum MMP9 level in WS decreased significantly with calendar age (p < 0.05). The MMP9 level (ng/mL) in WS (147.2 ± 28.5) was not significantly different in comparison with those from age-matched normal adult population aged between 25 and 70 years (109.1 ± 9.4), nor normal elderly population aged between 71 and 100 years (179.9 ± 16.1). Although both normal ageing and WS were associated with minor inflammation, the inflammatory parameters such as serum MMP9 and hsCRP changed differently between normal ageing and WS. The WS-specific chronic inflammation including skin ulcer and diabetes mellitus may contribute the different behavior of both ageing biomarkers from normal ageing. PMID:27195193

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by the premature occurrence of many age-related features. Previously, the WS gene (WRN) was mapped between D8S131 and D8S87, in an 8.3-cM interval. In this study, regions of homozygosity in 36 WS patients from inbred families were searched for by genotyping for 35 dinucleotide repeat polymorphic markers to narrow down the W-RN critical region. The region most consistently homozygous in these patients was between the D8S1219/D8S1220 cluster and D8S278, within a 4.4-cM interval. For 16 markers mapped in this interval, 24 WS patients (22 Japanese patients and 2 Caucasian patients) in whom consanguinity failed to be proved were also genotyped, under the assumption that some of these patients might still be from consanguineous marriages. The data were analyzed by Fisher`s exact test with a 2 x 2 contingency table for the 22 Japanese patients, excluding the 2 Caucasian patients. The frequencies of homozygosity in the 22 patients at 10 of 16 markers tested were significantly higher than those detected in the general population. Analysis of homozygosity patterns indicated that the region most consistently homozygous was between D8S1445 and D8S278. Thus the WRN locus is most likely between the two markers D8S1445 and D8S278, in a 1.6-cM interval. 49 refs., 4 tabs.

The first generation of stars produces a background of Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation which can photodissociate molecular hydrogen, increasing the mass of dark matter haloes required to host star formation. Previous studies have determined the critical mass required for efficient molecular cooling with a constant LW background. However, the true background is expected to increase rapidly at early times. Neglecting this evolution could underestimate star formation in small haloes that may have started to cool in the past when the LW intensity was much lower. Background evolution is a large source of uncertainty in pre-reionization predictions of the cosmological 21cm signal, which can be observed with future radio telescopes. To address this, we perform zero-dimensional one-zone calculations that follow the density, chemical abundances, and temperature of gas in the central regions of dark matter haloes, including hierarchical growth and an evolving LW background. We begin by studying the physics of haloes subjected to a background that increases exponentially with redshift. We find that when the intensity increases more slowly than JLW(z)∝10-z/5, cooling in the past is a relatively small effect. We then self-consistently compute the cosmological LW background over z = 15-50 and find that cooling in the past due to an evolving background has a modest impact. Finally, we compare these results to three-dimensional hydrodynamical cosmological simulations with varying LW histories. While only a small number of haloes were simulated, the results are consistent with our one-zone calculations.

Summary Age-associated minor inflammation: inflammageing may explain human ageing mechanism(s). Our previous study reported a significant increase in the serum level of highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) with normal ageing and the patients with Werner syndrome (WS). To further study the minor inflammatory condition associated with ageing, another possible ageing biomarker: matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP9) was examined in the sera from 217 normal Japanese individuals aged between 1 and 100 years and 41 mutation-proven Japanese WS aged between 32 and 70 years. MMP9 was assayed by ELISA. The serum level of MMP9 was elevated significantly (p < 0.001) with normal ageing from both sexes as hsCRP. In contrast to normal ageing, the serum MMP9 level in WS decreased significantly with calendar age (p < 0.05). The MMP9 level (ng/mL) in WS (147.2 ± 28.5) was not significantly different in comparison with those from age-matched normal adult population aged between 25 and 70 years (109.1 ± 9.4), nor normal elderly population aged between 71 and 100 years (179.9 ± 16.1). Although both normal ageing and WS were associated with minor inflammation, the inflammatory parameters such as serum MMP9 and hsCRP changed differently between normal ageing and WS. The WS-specific chronic inflammation including skin ulcer and diabetes mellitus may contribute the different behavior of both ageing biomarkers from normal ageing. PMID:27195193

Asymmetric obstructed uterus didelphys (Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome), also known as obstructed hemivagina with ipsilateral renal agenesis syndrome, is a rare congenital müllerian duct anomaly. Herein we present a case report of incomplete Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome, with absence of the hemivaginal septum, diagnosed in a 12-year-old girl. Treatment of the severe pain using an analgesic agent was ineffective. Therefore, laparoscopic metroplastic surgery via the modified Strassman procedure was performed. After surgery, the patient no longer reported dysmenorrhea. PMID:23465264

In this paper, we investigate the dynamical behaviour of entanglement in terms of concurrence in a bipartite system subjected to an external magnetic field under the action of dissipative environments in the extended Werner-like initial state. The interesting phenomenon of entanglement sudden death as well as sudden birth appears during the evolution process. We analyse in detail the effect of the purity of the initial entangled state of two qubits via Heisenberg XY interaction on the apparition time of entanglement sudden death and entanglement sudden birth. Furthermore, the conditions on the conversion of entanglement sudden death and entanglement sudden birth can be generalized when the initial entangled state is not pure. In particular, a critical purity of the initial mixed entangled state exists, above which entanglement sudden birth vanishes while entanglement sudden death appears. It is also noticed that stable entanglement, which is independent of different initial states of the qubits (pure or mixed state), occurs even in the presence of decoherence. These results arising from the combination of the extended Werner-like initial state and dissipative environments suggest an approach to control and enhance the entanglement even after purity induced sudden birth, death and revival.

In this paper, we study the influence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction on quantum correlations in two-qubit Werner states and maximally entangled mixed states (MEMS). We consider our system as a closed system of a qubit pair and one auxiliary qubit, which interact with any one of the qubit of the pair through DM interaction. We show that DM interaction, taken along any direction ( x or y or z), does not affect two-qubit Werner states. On the other hand, the MEMS are affected by x and z components of DM interaction and remain unaffected by the y component. Further, we find that the state (i.e., probability amplitude) of auxiliary qubit does not affect the quantum correlations in both the states, and only DM interaction strength influences the quantum correlations. So one can avoid the intention to prepare the specific state of auxiliary qubit to manipulate the quantum correlations in both the states. We mention here that avoiding the preparation of state can contribute to cost reduction in quantum information processing. We also observe the phenomenon of entanglement sudden death in the present study.

Genes that play a role in the senescent arrest of cellular replication are likely to be overexpressed in human diploid fibroblasts (HDF) derived from subjects with Werner syndrome (WS) because these cells have a severely curtailed replicative life span. To identify some of these genes, a cDNA library was constructed from WS HDF after they had been serum depleted and repleted (5 days in medium containing 1% serum followed by 24 h in medium containing 20% serum). Differential screening of 7,500 colonies revealed 102 clones that hybridized preferentially with [32P]cDNA derived from RNA of WS cells compared with [32P]cDNA derived from normal HDF. Cross-hybridization and partial DNA sequence determination identified 18 independent gene sequences, 9 of them known and 9 unknown. The known genes included alpha 1(I) procollagen, alpha 2(I) procollagen, fibronectin, ferritin heavy chain, insulinlike growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), osteonectin, human tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor type I, thrombospondin, and alpha B-crystallin. The nine unknown clones included two novel gene sequences and seven additional sequences that contained both novel segments and the Alu class of repetitive short interspersed nuclear elements; five of these seven Alu+ clones also contained the long interpersed nuclear element I (KpnI) family of repetitive elements. Northern (RNA) analysis, using the 18 sequences as probes, showed higher levels of these mRNAs in WS HDF than in normal HDF. Five selected mRNAs studied in greater detail [alpha 1(I) procollagen, fibronectin, insulinlike growth factor-binding protein-3, WS3-10, and WS9-14] showed higher mRNA levels in both WS and late-passage normal HDF than in early-passage normal HDF at various intervals following serum depletion/repletion and after subculture and growth from sparse to high-density confluent arrest. These results indicate that senescence of both WS and normal HDF is accompanied by overexpression of similar sets of

The MCNP4B Monte Carlo transport code is used in a feasibility study of the epithermal neutron boron neutron capture therapy facility in the thermalizing column of the 250-kW TRIGA Mark II reactor at the Jozef Stefan Institute (JSI). To boost the epithermal neutron flux at the reference irradiation point, the efficiency of a fission plate with almost 1.5 kg of 20% enriched uranium and 2.3 kW of thermal power is investigated. With the same purpose in mind, the TRIGA reactor core setup is optimized, and standard fresh fuel elements are concentrated partly in the outermost ring of the core. Further, a detailed parametric study of the materials and dimensions for all the relevant parts of the irradiation facility is carried out. Some of the standard epithermal neutron filter/moderator materials, as well as 'pressed-only' low-density Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and AlF{sub 3}, are considered. The proposed version of the BNCT facility, with PbF{sub 2} as the epithermal neutron filter/moderator, provides an epithermal neutron flux of {approx}1.1 x 10{sup 9} n/cm{sup 2}.s, thus enabling patient irradiation times of <60 min. With reasonably low fast neutron and photon contamination ([overdot]D{sub nfast}/{phi}{sub epi} < 5 x 10{sup -13} Gy.cm{sup 2}/n and [overdot]D{sub {gamma}} /{phi}{sub epi} < 3 x 10{sup -13} Gy.cm{sup 2}/n), the in-air performances of the proposed beam are comparable to all existing epithermal BNCT facilities. The design presents an equally efficient alternative to the BNCT beams in TRIGA reactor thermal columns that are more commonly applied. The cavity of the dry cell, a former JSI TRIGA reactor spent-fuel storage facility, adjacent to the thermalizing column, could rather easily be rearranged into a suitable patient treatment room, which would substantially decrease the overall developmental costs.

Werner syndrome (WS) is a progeroid or premature aging syndrome characterized by early onset of age-related pathologies and cancer. The average life expectancy of affected people is 52.8 years and tends to increase. The major causes of death are malignancy and myocardial infarction. Increased telomere attrition and decay are thought to play a causative role in the clinical and pathological manifestations of the disease. Although telomere length, with or without germline mutation, is known to be associated with interstitial lung disease, the latter is not associated with WS. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first case describing a WS patient with fatal ILD. This case suggests that older patients with WS could develop ILD. Clinical outcome of WS patients may thus be improved by counselling them regarding smoking cessation or other exposure and by proposing antifibrotic therapy. PMID:26788395

Microwave-assisted Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions have been employed towards the synthesis of three different MAPKAPK2 (MK2) inhibitors to study accelerated aging in Werner syndrome (WS) cells, including the cross-coupling of a 2-chloroquinoline with a 3-pyridinylboronic acid, the coupling of an aryl bromide with an indolylboronic acid and the reaction of a 3-amino-4-bromopyrazole with 4-carbamoylphenylboronic acid. In all of these processes, the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction was fast and relatively efficient using a palladium catalyst under microwave irradiation. The process was incorporated into a rapid 3-step microwave-assisted method for the synthesis of a MK2 inhibitor involving 3-aminopyrazole formation, pyrazole C-4 bromination using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), and Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of the pyrazolyl bromide with 4-carbamoylphenylboronic acid to give the target 4-arylpyrazole in 35% overall yield, suitable for study in WS cells. PMID:26046488

Among many applications quantum weak measurements have been shown to be important in exploring fundamental physics issues, such as the experimental violation of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation and the Hardy paradox, and have also technological implications in quantum optics, quantum metrology and quantum communications, where the precision of the measurement is as important as the precision of quantum state preparation. The theory of weak measurement can be formulated using the pre-and post-selected quantum systems, as well as using the weak measurement operator formalism. In this work, we study the quantum discord (QD) of quasi-Werner mixed states based on bipartite entangled coherent states using the weak measurements operator, instead of the projective measurement operators. We then compare the quantum discord for both kinds of measurement operators, in terms of the entanglement quality, the latter being measured using the concept of concurrence. It's found greater quantum correlations using the weak measurement operators.

The thermal entanglement and teleportation of a thermally mixed entangled state of a two-qubit Heisenberg XXX chain under the Dzyaloshinski-Moriya (DM) anisotropic antisymmetric interaction through a noisy quantum channel given by a Werner state is investigated. The dependences of the thermal entanglement of the teleported state on the DM coupling constant, the temperature and the entanglement of the noisy quantum channel are studied in detail for both the ferromagnetic and the antiferromagnetic cases. The result shows that a minimum entanglement of the noisy quantum channel must be provided in order to realize the entanglement teleportation. The values of fidelity of the teleported state are also studied for these two cases. It is found that under certain conditions, we can transfer an initial state with a better fidelity than that for any classical communication protocol.

Werner Syndrome (WS) is a rare inherited disease characterized by premature aging and increased propensity for cancer. Mutations in the WRN gene can be of several types, including nonsense mutations, leading to a truncated protein form. WRN is a RecQ family member with both helicase and exonuclease activities, and it participates in several cell metabolic pathways, including DNA replication, DNA repair, and telomere maintenance. Here, we reported a novel homozygous WS mutation (c.3767 C > G) in 2 Argentinian brothers, which resulted in a stop codon and a truncated protein (p.S1256X). We also observed increased WRN promoter methylation in the cells of patients and decreased messenger WRN RNA (WRN mRNA) expression. Finally, we showed that the read-through of nonsense mutation pharmacologic treatment with both aminoglycosides (AGs) and ataluren (PTC-124) in these cells restores full-length protein expression and WRN functionality. PMID:25830902

Abstract Leptodira nycthemera Werner, 1901, was described from a specimen collected in Ecuador. No information on the holotype was published after its description. In the most recent review of Leptodeira, Leptodira nycthemera was considered to be a synonym of Leptodeira annulata annulata, although the author emphasized that the holotype was lost and did not include the pholidotic data from the original description in his account of Leptodeira annulata annulata. Since this review, a number of authors have accepted this synonymy. Recently, analyzing specimens of Leptodeira in the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany, we discovered the holotype of Leptodira nycthemera. This holotype is re-described here, and its correct identity is determined. Based on the analysis of meristic characters and the color of the holotype, we recognize Leptodira nycthemera as a junior synonym of Oxyrhopus petolarius. PMID:26085798

Background Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a very rare congenital anomaly of the urogenital tract involving Müllerian ducts and Wolffian structures, and it is characterized by the triad of didelphys uterus, obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. It generally occurs at puberty and exhibits non-specific and variable symptoms with acute or pelvic pain shortly following menarche, causing a delay in the diagnosis. Moreover, the diagnosis is complicated by the infrequency of this syndrome, because Müllerian duct anomalies (MDA) are infrequently encountered in a routine clinical setting. Cases presentation two cases of HWW syndrome in adolescents and a differential diagnosis for one case of a different MDA, and the impact of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technology to achieve the correct diagnosis. Conclusions MR imaging is a very suitable diagnostic tool in order to perform the correct diagnosis of HWW syndrome. PMID:22405336

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) is a müllerian duct anomaly typically associated with a uterus didelphys with two cervices and two vaginas, one of which is obstructed. A remarkable case of HWWS with contralateral duplex kidneys and duplication of ureters is described, which, to our knowledge, is a rarely reported variant to date. For this congenital anomaly, a strong suspicion and knowledge of HWWS are essential for a precise diagnosis. PMID:24481003

Microwave-assisted synthesis of the pyrazolyl ketone p38 MAPK inhibitor RO3201195 in 7 steps and 15% overall yield, and the comparison of its effect upon the proliferation of Werner Syndrome cells with a library of pyrazolyl ketones, strengthens the evidence that p38 MAPK inhibition plays a critical role in modulating premature cellular senescence in this progeroid syndrome and the reversal of accelerated ageing observed in vitro on treatment with SB203580. PMID:26611938

One of the best ways to demonstrate the performance and capabilities of testing laboratories is to participate successfully in different international comparison schemes and proficiency tests. The overview of all results of such schemes in the field of high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry where the Laboratory for Radioactivity Measurements (LMR) of the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI), Slovenia, participated in years 1986-2014 is presented. Different schemes are compared, strong points and drawbacks of different providers and schemes regarding evaluation procedures, determination of reference values, reporting time, sets of radionuclides included in the samples and range of activities of different radionuclides are discussed. One of the main conclusions is that the comparison and proficiency test samples normally contain substantially larger activities than are usually detected in environmental samples. Therefore the capability of determination of activities close to detection limits is usually covered only by few schemes. PMID:26706285

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae SGS1 gene is homologous to Escherichia coli RecQ and the human BLM and WRN proteins that are defective in the cancer-prone disorder Bloom's syndrome and the premature aging disorder Werner's syndrome, respectively. While recQ mutants are deficient in conjugational recombination and DNA repair, Bloom's syndrome cell lines show hyperrecombination. Bloom's and Werner's syndrome cell lines both exhibit chromosomal instability. sgs1Δ strains show mitotic hyperrecombination, as do Bloom's cells. This was manifested as an increase in the frequency of interchromosomal homologous recombination, intrachromosomal excision recombination, and ectopic recombination. Hyperrecombination was partially independent of both RAD52 and RAD1. Meiotic recombination was not increased in sgs1Δ mutants, although meiosis I chromosome missegregation has been shown to be elevated. sgs1Δ suppresses the slow growth of a top3Δ strain lacking topoisomerase III. Although there was an increase in subtelomeric Y' instability in sgs1Δ strains due to hyperrecombination, no evidence was found for an increase in the instability of terminal telomeric sequences in a top3Δ or a sgs1Δ strain. This contrasts with the telomere maintenance defects of Werner's patients. We conclude that the SGS1 gene product is involved in the maintenance of genome stability in S. cerevisiae. PMID:8913739

In this paper, the main outlines of the discussions between Niels Bohr with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schroedinger during 1920-1927 are treated. From the formulation of quantum mechanics in 1925-1926 and wave mechanics in 1926, there emerged Born's statistical interpretation of the wave function in summer 1926, and on the basis of the quantum mechanical transformation theory - formulated in fall 1926 by Dirac, London, and Jordan - Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in early 1927. At the Volta Conference in Como in September 1927 and at the fifth Solvay Conference in Brussels the following month, Bohr publicly enunciated his complementarity principle, which had been developing in his mind for several years. The Bohr-Einstein discussions about the consistency and completeness of quantum mechanics and of physical theory as such - formally begun in October 1927 at the fifth Solvay Conference and carried on at the sixth Solvay Conference in October 1930 - were continued during the next decades. All these aspects are briefly summarized.

The direct collapse model of supermassive black hole seed formation requires that the gas cools predominantly via atomic hydrogen. To this end we simulate the effect of an anisotropic radiation source on the collapse of a halo at high redshift. The radiation source is placed at a distance of 3 kpc (physical) from the collapsing object and is set to emit monochromatically in the center of the Lyman-Werner (LW) band. The LW radiation emitted from the high redshift source is followed self-consistently using ray tracing techniques. Due to self-shielding, a small amount of H2 is able to form at the very center of the collapsing halo even under very strong LW radiation. Furthermore, we find that a radiation source, emitting >1054 (~ 103 J21) photons s-1, is required to cause the collapse of a clump of M ~ 105 M ⊙. The resulting accretion rate onto the collapsing object is ~0.25 M ⊙ yr-1. Our results display significant differences, compared to the isotropic radiation field case, in terms of the H2 fraction at an equivalent radius. These differences will significantly affect the dynamics of the collapse. With the inclusion of a strong anisotropic radiation source, the final mass of the collapsing object is found to be M ~ 105 M ⊙. This is consistent with predictions for the formation of a supermassive star or quasi-star leading to a supermassive black hole.

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive disorder, characterized as a progeroid syndrome, previously mapped to the 8p 11.2-21.1 region. Because WS is so rare, and because many patients are from consanguineous marriages, fine localization of the gene by traditional meiotic mapping methods is unlikely to succeed. Here the authors present the results of a search for a region that exhibits linkage disequilibrium with the disorder, under the assumption that identification of such a region may provide an alternative method of narrowing down the location of WRN, the gene responsible for WS. They present allele frequencies in Japanese and Caucasian cases and controls for D8S137, D8S131, D8S87, D8S278, D8S259, D8S283, fibroblast growth factor receptor 1, ankyrin 1, D8S339, and two polymorphisms in glutathione reductase (GSR), covering [approximately] 16.5 cM in total. They show that three of the markers examined - D8S339 and both polymorphisms in the GSR locus - show strong statistically significant evidence of disequilibrium with WRN in the Japanese population but not in the Caucasian population. In addition, they show that a limited number of haplotypes are associated with the disease in both populations and that these haplotypes define clusters of apparently related haplotypes that may identify as many as eight or nine independent WRN mutations in these two populations. 36 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs.

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare developmental anomaly that is consists of uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. This rare entity is the spectrum of Mullerian duct anomalies (MDA) accompanied by developmental anomaly of one of Wolffian ducts. The present report demonstrated HWW syndrome and reviewed literatures in term of embryological etiology, clinical manifestation, radiographic findings and surgical management. In this case report is a 11-year-old girl presented with chronic pelvic pain. She had menarche at the age of 10 and her menstrual cycles were regular with moderate dysmenorrhea. Physical examination revealed palpable pelvic mass with tenderness. Transabdominal ultrasonography (US) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated uterine didelphys with right-sided hematometrocolpos and absent right kidney. Right hematosalpinx was also detected due to distal tubal occlusion from adhesion. These preoperative images can verify all of the features of this syndrome and correctly anticipated diagnosis was achieved. The patient underwent laparoscopic right tubal drainage with lysis of pelvic adhesion and hysteroscopic resection of vaginal septum. Her symptoms were improved uneventfully. In conclusion, HWW syndrome exhibits unique clinical presentation with characteristic radiographic findings and symptom can be relieved dramatically after receiving appropriate surgical management. PMID:23513478

Werner Ernst Reichardt was born on January 30, 1924 in Berlin and at age 19 was drafted into the Luftwaffe and assigned to an electronic signals section laboratory. He became an active member of a resistance group and supplied radios for the movement in Germany. He emerged from the ashes of the Second World War and dedicated his scientific life to the development of the newborn specialty of biological physics. Following graduation from the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg, he did a fellowship at CalTech under Max Delbrück. On returning to Germany he joined the Max Planck Institut and later became Director of the Max Planck Institut für Biologische Kybernetik in Tübingen, West Germany. Reichardt was one of the founders of the quantitative study of visually controlled orientation in animals. His work is very nearly unique in its close dialectic between elegant non-linear mathematical theory and quantitative experimental test of their predictions. During the 1950s Reichardt and his collaborators jointly developed an autocorrelation model (i.e. the firing rate of the involved visual neurones is closely correlated with the features of the pattern stimulating them) of how moving patterns are perceived by motion detectors in the visual system of the fly. This was the first mathematical description of a biological abstraction process. His findings apply to vertebrate vision, including motion detection and figure-ground description in human vision. His Max Planck Institute became a world renowned center for the computational approach to information processing by the nervous system. At his retirement party from the Institute he founded, Reichardt died on the evening of September 11th, 1992. PMID:11108122

Werner syndrome (WS) is a premature aging disorder caused by mutations in a RecQ-family DNA helicase, WRN. Mice lacking part of the helicase domain of the WRN orthologue exhibit many phenotypic features of WS, including metabolic abnormalities and a shorter mean life span. In contrast, mice lacking the entire Wrn protein (i.e. Wrn null mice) do not exhibit a premature aging phenotype. In this study, we used a targeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomic approach to identify serum metabolites that are differentially altered in young Wrn helicase mutant and Wrn null mice. An antibody-based quantification of 43 serum cytokines and markers of cardiovascular disease risk complemented this study. We found that Wrn helicase mutants exhibited elevated and decreased levels, respectively, of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-18. Wrn helicase mutants also exhibited an increase in serum hydroxyproline and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, markers of extracellular matrix remodeling of the vascular system and inflammation in aging. We also observed an abnormal increase in the ratio of very long chain to short chain lysophosphatidylcholines in the Wrn helicase mutants underlying a peroxisome perturbation in these mice. Remarkably, the Wrn mutant helicase protein was mislocalized to the endoplasmic reticulum and the peroxisomal fractions in liver tissues. Additional analyses with mouse embryonic fibroblasts indicated a severe defect of the autophagy flux in cells derived from Wrn helicase mutants compared to wild type and Wrn null animals. These results indicate that the deleterious effects of the helicase-deficient Wrn protein are mediated by the dysfunction of several cellular organelles. PMID:26447695

XPG is a structure-specific endonuclease required for nucleotide excision repair (NER). XPG incision defects result in the cancer-prone syndrome xeroderma pigmentosum, whereas truncating mutations of XPG cause the severe postnatal progeroid developmental disorder Cockayne syndrome. We show that XPG interacts directly with WRN protein, which is defective in the premature aging disorder Werner syndrome, and that the two proteins undergo similar sub-nuclear redistribution in S-phase and co-localize in nuclear foci. The co-localization was observed in mid- to late-S-phase, when WRN moves from nucleoli to nuclear foci that have been shown to contain protein markers of both stalled replication forks and telomeric proteins. We mapped the interaction between XPG and WRN to the C-terminal domains of each and show that interaction with the C-terminal domain of XPG strongly stimulates WRN helicase activity. WRN also possesses a competing DNA single-strand annealing activity that, combined with unwinding, has been shown to coordinate regression of model replication forks to form Holliday junction/chicken foot intermediate structures. We tested whether XPG stimulated WRN annealing activity and found that XPG itself has intrinsic strand annealing activity that requires the unstructured R- and C-terminal domains, but not the conserved catalytic core or endonuclease activity. Annealing by XPG is cooperative, rather than additive, with WRN annealing. Taken together, our results suggest a novel function for XPG in S-phase that is at least in part carried out coordinately with WRN, and which may contribute to the severity of the phenotypes that occur upon loss of XPG.

Werner syndrome (WS) is a premature aging disorder caused by mutations in a RecQ-family DNA helicase, WRN. Mice lacking part of the helicase domain of the WRN orthologue exhibit many phenotypic features of WS, including metabolic abnormalities and a shorter mean life span. In contrast, mice lacking the entire Wrn protein (i.e. Wrn null mice) do not exhibit a premature aging phenotype. In this study, we used a targeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomic approach to identify serum metabolites that are differentially altered in young Wrn helicase mutant and Wrn null mice. An antibody-based quantification of 43 serum cytokines and markers of cardiovascular disease risk complemented this study. We found that Wrn helicase mutants exhibited elevated and decreased levels, respectively, of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-18. Wrn helicase mutants also exhibited an increase in serum hydroxyproline and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, markers of extracellular matrix remodeling of the vascular system and inflammation in aging. We also observed an abnormal increase in the ratio of very long chain to short chain lysophosphatidylcholines in the Wrn helicase mutants underlying a peroxisome perturbation in these mice. Remarkably, the Wrn mutant helicase protein was mislocalized to the endoplasmic reticulum and the peroxisomal fractions in liver tissues. Additional analyses with mouse embryonic fibroblasts indicated a severe defect of the autophagy flux in cells derived from Wrn helicase mutants compared to wild type and Wrn null animals. These results indicate that the deleterious effects of the helicase-deficient Wrn protein are mediated by the dysfunction of several cellular organelles. PMID:26447695

The direct collapse model of supermassive black hole seed formation requires that the gas cools predominantly via atomic hydrogen. To this end we simulate the effect of an anisotropic radiation source on the collapse of a halo at high redshift. The radiation source is placed at a distance of 3 kpc (physical) from the collapsing object and is set to emit monochromatically in the center of the Lyman-Werner (LW) band. The LW radiation emitted from the high redshift source is followed self-consistently using ray tracing techniques. Due to self-shielding, a small amount of H{sub 2} is able to form at the very center of the collapsing halo even under very strong LW radiation. Furthermore, we find that a radiation source, emitting >10{sup 54} (∼ 10{sup 3} J{sub 21}) photons s{sup –1}, is required to cause the collapse of a clump of M ∼ 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}. The resulting accretion rate onto the collapsing object is ∼0.25 M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}. Our results display significant differences, compared to the isotropic radiation field case, in terms of the H{sub 2} fraction at an equivalent radius. These differences will significantly affect the dynamics of the collapse. With the inclusion of a strong anisotropic radiation source, the final mass of the collapsing object is found to be M ∼ 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}. This is consistent with predictions for the formation of a supermassive star or quasi-star leading to a supermassive black hole.

We have determined the mitotic stability of microsatellite alleles and allele lengths in SV40-immortalized Werner syndrome (WS) and control cell lines. The impetus for this work was presence of a mutator phenotype in WS cells and cell lines and the association between a DNA mismatch repair deficit and microsatellite length instability in a heritable human tumor syndrome. Thus the identification of microsatellite length instability in WS cells might provide a clue to the primary biochemical defect in WS and a partial explanation for the mutator phenotype and the elevated cancer risk of WS patients. Five microsatellite loci (D2S123, D10S197, D10S141, D8S255, and D8S87) were PCR genotyped in 88 independent clones derived from four SV40-immortalized fibroblast cell lines (two WS lines: WV1 and PSV811; and two control lines: GM637 and GM639). Stable allele lengths were transmitted from cell line to clones in every case. WS cell line WV1 contained a preexisting faint third D2S123 allele which was transmitted with the other two D2S123 alleles to a majority of WV1 clones. In contrast, microsatellite allele loss was common: complete absence of one of two alleles was seen in 30% of control and in 3% of WS clones. Complete allele loss likely results from a clonal population being derived from a cell lacking a microsatellite allele. Altered relative band intensities in clones compared to parental lines were very common in both WS and control backgrounds (40% of all clones). This suggests that allele loss is common and continues upon post-cloning cell culture. These allele losses are likely to be a consequence of the genetic instability that accompanies SV40 immortalization. These results indicate that SV40-immortalized cell lines are genetically heterogeneous, and that the genotypes of individual clones may incompletely represent the genomes of the primary cells from which they were derived.

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare developmental anomaly that includes uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. A 13-year-old girl presented with chronic abdominal pain. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed uterus didelphys, hematometrocolpos and renal agenesis on the right side with imperforate hymen. Subsequently the patient was found to have Mullerian duct anomalies. CA 19-9 level was high. At laparoscopy combined with vaginoscopy hematocolpos was drained following which she improved clinically and CA 19-9 level returned to normal. PMID:26816677

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare developmental anomaly that includes uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis. A 13-year-old girl presented with chronic abdominal pain. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed uterus didelphys, hematometrocolpos and renal agenesis on the right side with imperforate hymen. Subsequently the patient was found to have Mullerian duct anomalies. CA 19-9 level was high. At laparoscopy combined with vaginoscopy hematocolpos was drained following which she improved clinically and CA 19-9 level returned to normal. PMID:26816677

We report the case of a female neonate with ipsilateral renal agenesis and uterus didelphys with blind hemivagina, also known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome. Prenatal sonography revealed the absence of the left kidney and a retrovesical cystic lesion suspected as hydrometrocolpos. Postnatal evaluation confirmed that the cystic lesion was a hydrocolpos associated with double uterus and blind hemivagina (HWW syndrome). HWW syndrome can be suspected prenatally if a retrovesical cystic lesion is detected in a female fetus with unilateral absence of kidney. PMID:22678931

This article announces the recipient of the 2014 inaugural Werner Kalow Responsible Innovation Prize in Global Omics and Personalized Medicine by the Pacific Rim Association for Clinical Pharmacogenetics (PRACP): Bernard Lerer, professor of psychiatry and director of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. The Werner Kalow Responsible Innovation Prize is given to an exceptional interdisciplinary scholar who has made highly innovative and enduring contributions to global omics science and personalized medicine, with both vertical and horizontal (transdisciplinary) impacts. The prize is established in memory of a beloved colleague, mentor, and friend, the late Professor Werner Kalow, who cultivated the idea and practice of pharmacogenetics in modern therapeutics commencing in the 1950s. PRACP, the prize's sponsor, is one of the longest standing learned societies in the Asia-Pacific region, and was founded by Kalow and colleagues more than two decades ago in the then-emerging field of pharmacogenetics. In announcing this inaugural prize and its winner, we seek to highlight the works of prize winner, Professor Lerer. Additionally, we contextualize the significance of the prize by recalling the life and works of Professor Kalow and providing a brief socio-technical history of the rise of pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine as a veritable form of 21(st) century scientific practice. The article also fills a void in previous social science analyses of pharmacogenetics, by bringing to the fore the works of Kalow from 1995 to 2008, when he presciently noted the rise of yet another field of postgenomics inquiry--pharmacoepigenetics--that railed against genetic determinism and underscored the temporal and spatial plasticity of genetic components of drug response, with invention of the repeated drug administration (RDA) method that estimates the dynamic heritabilities of drug response. The prize goes a long way

The rate of cooling of domesticated pig bones is investigated within the temperature range of 20°C-320°C. Within the afore-mentioned temperature range, it was found that different behaviors in the rate of cooling were taking place. For bones reaching a temperature within the lower temperature range of 20°C-50°C, it was found that the rate of cooling is mostly governed by the empirical Newton's law of cooling. It is also shown that a transition is taking place somewhere within 50°C-100°C, where both the heat conduction equation and Newton's law apply. As bones can be raised at a fairly high temperature before burning, it was found that the rate of cooling within the range 125°C-320°C is mostly behaving according to the heat conduction equation and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law. A pulsed CO2 laser was used to heat the bones up to a given temperature and the change of temperature as a function of time was recorded by non-contact infrared thermometer during the cooling period. PMID:24688807

The rate of cooling of domesticated pig bones is investigated within the temperature range of 20°C-320°C. Within the afore-mentioned temperature range, it was found that different behaviors in the rate of cooling were taking place. For bones reaching a temperature within the lower temperature range of 20°C-50°C, it was found that the rate of cooling is mostly governed by the empirical Newton’s law of cooling. It is also shown that a transition is taking place somewhere within 50°C-100°C, where both the heat conduction equation and Newton’s law apply. As bones can be raised at a fairly high temperature before burning, it was found that the rate of cooling within the range 125°C-320°C is mostly behaving according to the heat conduction equation and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law. A pulsed CO2 laser was used to heat the bones up to a given temperature and the change of temperature as a function of time was recorded by non-contact infrared thermometer during the cooling period. PMID:24688807

A yeast artificial chromosome (YAC), P1, and cosmid clone contig was constructed for the Werner syndrome (WRN) region of chromosome 8p12-p21 and used to clone a candidate gene for WRN. This region also possibly contains a familial breast cancer locus. The contig was initiated by isolating YACs for the glutathione reductase (GSR) gene and extended in either direction by walking techniques. Sequence-tagged site (STS) markers were generated from subclones of 2 GSR YACs and used to identify P1 and cosmid clones. Additional STSs were generated from P1 and cosmid clones and from potential expressed sequences identified by cDNA selection and exon amplification methods. The final contig was assembled by typing 17 YACs, 20 P1 clones, and 109 cosmids for 54 STS markers. The WRN region could be spanned by 2 nonchimeric YACs covering approximately 1.4 Mb. A P1/cosmid contig was established covering the core 700-800 kb of the WRN region. Fifteen new short tandem repeat polymorphisms and 2 biallelic polymorphic markers were identified and included as STSs in the contig. Analysis of these markers in Werner syndrome subjects demonstrates that the candidate WRN gene is in a region of linkage disequilibrium. 47 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs.

Modulation of DNA repair proteins by small molecules has attracted great interest. An in vitro helicase activity screen was used to identify molecules that modulate DNA unwinding by Werner syndrome helicase (WRN), mutated in the premature aging disorder Werner syndrome. A small molecule from the National Cancer Institute Diversity Set designated NSC 19630 [1-(propoxymethyl)-maleimide] was identified that inhibited WRN helicase activity but did not affect other DNA helicases [Bloom syndrome (BLM), Fanconi anemia group J (FANCJ), RECQ1, RecQ, UvrD, or DnaB). Exposure of human cells to NSC 19630 dramatically impaired growth and proliferation, induced apoptosis in a WRN-dependent manner, and resulted in elevated γ-H2AX and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) foci. NSC 19630 exposure led to delayed S-phase progression, consistent with the accumulation of stalled replication forks, and to DNA damage in a WRN-dependent manner. Exposure to NSC 19630 sensitized cancer cells to the G-quadruplex-binding compound telomestatin or a poly(ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor. Sublethal dosage of NSC 19630 and the chemotherapy drug topotecan acted synergistically to inhibit cell proliferation and induce DNA damage. The use of this WRN helicase inhibitor molecule may provide insight into the importance of WRN-mediated pathway(s) important for DNA repair and the replicational stress response. PMID:21220316

Applying Green-Kubo formalism and equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we have studied for the first time the dynamic correlation, Onsager coefficients, and Maxwell-Stefan (MS) diffusivities of molten salt LiF-BeF2, which is a potential candidate for a coolant in a high temperature reactor. We observe an unusual composition dependence and strikingly a crossover in sign for all the MS diffusivities at a composition of around 7% of LiF where the MS diffusivity between cation-anion pair (Đ(BeF) and Đ(LiF)) jumps from positive to negative value while the MS diffusivity between cation-cation pair (Đ(LiBe)) becomes positive from a negative value. Even though the negative MS diffusivities have been observed for electrolyte solutions between cation-cation pair, here we report negative MS diffusivity between cation-anion pair where Đ(BeF) shows a sharp rise around 66% of BeF2, reaches maximum value at 70% of BeF2, and then decreases almost exponentially with a sign change for BeF2 around 93%. For low mole fraction of LiF, Đ(BeF) follows the Debye-Huckel theory and rises with the square root of LiF mole fraction similar to the MS diffusivity between cation-anion pair in aqueous solution of electrolyte salt. Negative MS diffusivities while unusual are, however, shown to satisfy the non-negative entropy constraints at all thermodynamic states as required by the second law of thermodynamics. We have established a strong correlation between the structure and dynamics and predict that the formation of flouride polyanion network between Be and F ions and coulomb interaction is responsible for sharp variation of the MS diffusivities which controls the multicomponent diffusion phenomenon in LiF-BeF2 which has a strong impact on the performance of the reactor. PMID:26192629

Abstract This article announces the recipient of the 2014 inaugural Werner Kalow Responsible Innovation Prize in Global Omics and Personalized Medicine by the Pacific Rim Association for Clinical Pharmacogenetics (PRACP): Bernard Lerer, professor of psychiatry and director of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. The Werner Kalow Responsible Innovation Prize is given to an exceptional interdisciplinary scholar who has made highly innovative and enduring contributions to global omics science and personalized medicine, with both vertical and horizontal (transdisciplinary) impacts. The prize is established in memory of a beloved colleague, mentor, and friend, the late Professor Werner Kalow, who cultivated the idea and practice of pharmacogenetics in modern therapeutics commencing in the 1950s. PRACP, the prize's sponsor, is one of the longest standing learned societies in the Asia-Pacific region, and was founded by Kalow and colleagues more than two decades ago in the then-emerging field of pharmacogenetics. In announcing this inaugural prize and its winner, we seek to highlight the works of prize winner, Professor Lerer. Additionally, we contextualize the significance of the prize by recalling the life and works of Professor Kalow and providing a brief socio-technical history of the rise of pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine as a veritable form of 21st century scientific practice. The article also fills a void in previous social science analyses of pharmacogenetics, by bringing to the fore the works of Kalow from 1995 to 2008, when he presciently noted the rise of yet another field of postgenomics inquiry—pharmacoepigenetics—that railed against genetic determinism and underscored the temporal and spatial plasticity of genetic components of drug response, with invention of the repeated drug administration (RDA) method that estimates the dynamic heritabilities of drug response. The prize goes a

A molten salt mixture of lithium fluoride and thorium fluoride (LiF-ThF4) serves as a fuel as well as a coolant in the most sophisticated molten salt reactor (MSR). Here, we report for the first time dynamic correlations, Onsager coefficients, Maxwell-Stefan (MS) diffusivities, and the concentration dependence of density and enthalpy of the molten salt mixture LiF-ThF4 at 1200 K in the composition range of 2-45% ThF4 and also at eutectic composition in the temperature range of 1123-1600 K using Green-Kubo formalism and equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We have observed an interesting oscillating pattern for the MS diffusivity for the cation-cation pair, in which ĐLi-Th oscillates between positive and negative values with the amplitude of the oscillation reducing as the system becomes rich in ThF4. Through the velocity autocorrelation function, vibrational density of states, radial distribution function analysis, and structural snapshots, we establish an interplay between the local structure and multicomponent dynamics and predict that formation of negatively charged [ThFn](4-n) clusters at a higher ThF4 mole % makes positively charged Li(+) ions oscillate between different clusters, with their range of motion reducing as the number of [ThFn](4-n) clusters increases, and finally Li(+) ions almost get trapped at a higher ThF4% when the electrostatic force on Li(+) exerted by various surrounding clusters gets balanced. Although reports on variations of density and enthalpy with temperature exist in the literature, for the first time we report variations of the density and enthalpy of LiF-ThF4 with the concentration of ThF4 (mole %) and fit them with the square root function of ThF4 concentration, which will be very useful for experimentalists to obtain data over a range of concentrations from fitting the formula for design purposes. The formation of [ThFn](4-n) clusters and the reduction in the diffusivity of the ions at a higher ThF4% may limit the

In this paper, the main outlines of the discussions between Niels Bohr with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger during 1920 1927 are treated. From the formulation of quantum mechanics in 1925 1926 and wave mechanics in 1926, there emerged Born's statistical interpretation of the wave function in summer 1926, and on the basis of the quantum mechanical transformation theory—formulated in fall 1926 by Dirac, London, and Jordan—Heisenberg formulated the uncertainty principle in early 1927. At the Volta Conference in Como in September 1927 and at the fifth Solvay Conference in Brussels the following month, Bohr publicly enunciated his complementarity principle, which had been developing in his mind for several years. The Bohr-Einstein discussions about the consistency and completeness of qnautum mechanics and of physical theory as such—formally begun in October 1927 at the fifth Solvay Conference and carried on at the sixth Solvay Conference in October 1930—were continued during the next decades. All these aspects are briefly summarized.

Sir William Harvey (1578-1657), who had many precursors, discovered blood circulation in 1628 after a significant number of anatomic dissection of cadavers; his studies were continued by Sir Christopher Wren and Daniel Johann Major. The first central vein catheterization was performed on a horse by Stephen Hales, an English Vicar. In 1844, a century later, the French biologist Claude Bernard attempted the first carotid artery cannulation and repeated the procedure in the jugular vein, again on a horse. He was first to report the complications now well known to be associated with this maneuver. In 1929 Werner Forssmann tried cardiac catheterization on himself, but could not investigate the procedure further since his findings were rejected and ridiculed by colleagues. His work was continued by André Frédéric Cournand and Dickinson Woodruff Richards Jr in the United States. In 1956 the three physicians shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their studies on vascular and cardiac systems. The genius and the perseverance of the three physicians paved the way towards peripheral and central catheter vein placement, one of the most frequently performed maneuvers in hospitals. Its history still remains unknown to most and deserves a short description. PMID:21983826

Classical Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is caused by LMNA mutations that generate an alternatively spliced form of lamin A, termed progerin. HGPS patients present in early childhood with atherosclerosis and striking features of accelerated aging. We report on two pedigrees of adult-onset coronary artery disease with progeroid features, who were referred to our International Registry of Werner Syndrome (WS) because of clinical features consistent with the diagnosis. No mutations were identified in the WRN gene that is responsible for WS, among these patients. Instead, we found two novel heterozygous mutations at the junction of exon 10 and intron 11 of the LMNA gene. These mutations resulted in the production of progerin at a level substantially lower than that of HGPS. Our findings indicate that LMNA mutations may result in coronary artery disease presenting in the fourth to sixth decades along with short stature and a progeroid appearance resembling WS. The absence of early-onset cataracts in this setting should suggest the diagnosis of progeroid laminopathy. This study illustrates the evolving genotype-phenotype relationship between the amount of progerin produced and the age of onset among the spectrum of restrictive dermopathy, HGPS, and atypical forms of WS. PMID:22065502

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by premature onset of a number of age-related diseases. The gene for WS, WRN, has been mapped to the 8p11.1-21.1 region with further localization through linkage disequilibrium mapping. Here we present the results of linkage disequilibrium and ancestral haplotype analyses of 35 markers to further refine the location of WRN. We identified an interval in this region in which 14 of 18 markers tested show significant evidence of linkage disequilibrium in at least one of the two populations tested. Analysis of extended and partial haplotypes covering 21 of the markers studied supports the existence of both obligate and probable ancestral recombinant events which localize WRN almost certainly to the interval between DSS2196 and D8S2186, and most likely to the narrower interval between D8S2168 and D8S2186. These haplotype analyses also suggest that there are multiple WRN mutations in each of the two populations under study. We also present a comparison of approaches to performing disequilibrium tests with multiallelic markers, and show that some commonly used approximations for such tests perform poorly in comparison to exact probability tests. Finally, we discuss some of the difficulties introduced by the high mutation rate at microsatellite markers which influence our ability to use ancestral haplotype analysis to localize disease genes. 51 refs., 6 figs., 7 tabs.

Atypical progeroid syndrome (APS), including atypical Werner syndrome (AWS), is a disorder of premature ageing caused by mutation of the lamin A gene, the same causal gene involved in Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome (HGS). We previously reported the first Japanese case of APS/AWS with a LMNA mutation (p.D300N). Recently, it has been reported that UVA induced abnormal truncated form of lamin A, called progerin, as well as HGS-like abnormal nuclear structures in normal human fibroblasts, being more frequent in the elderly, suggesting that lamin A may be involved in the regulation of photoageing. The objective of this study was to elucidate the sensitivity to cell damage induced by oxidative stress or UVA in fibroblasts from APS/AWS patient. Using immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry analysis, the amount of early apoptotic cells and degree of intra-cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation were higher in H2 02 - or UVA-treated APS/AWS fibroblasts than in normal fibroblasts, suggesting that repeated UV exposure may induce premature ageing of the skin in APS/AWS patients and that protecting against sunlight is possibly important for delaying the emergence of APS/AWS symptoms. In addition, we demonstrated that H2 O2 -, or UVA-induced apoptosis and necrosis in normal and APS/AWS fibroblasts were enhanced by farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI) treatment, indicating that FTI might not be useful for treating our APS/AWS patient. PMID:27539898

Psychiatrists and medical historians Werner Leibbrand (1896 - 1974) and Annemarie Wettley (1913 - 1996) are amongst the most striking figures in the field of history of medicine. Leibbrand was appointed director of the "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt" in Erlangen shortly after the war. Fuelled by his own experiences of suppression and persecution during the Nazi era he promised to unearth the crimes and atrocities which had happened under watch of the Nazi regime. He was joined by Annemarie Wettley, who worked as a physician at the hospital and had developed an increasing interest in the history of medicine. In 1946 they published "Um die Menschenrechte der Geisteskranken" ("Human Rights of the Mentally Ill") about the "euthanasia" campaign of the Nazi regime. Although a number of substantial works followed, Leibbrand and Wettley failed to inform in more depth on crimes and atrocities, for instance killings of patients and forced malnutrition. Doubts and charges against Wettley regarding her role in dietary programmes at the Erlangen hospital and against Leibbrand regarding special expert's reports--both had a short-term arrest warrant--might have contributed to stagnation in their efforts. In 1953 Leibbrand accepted the offer of a chair at the University in Munich, Wettley followed and habilitated in history of medicine; in the year 1962 they married. Contacts and exchange amongst medico-historical experts shed light on developments during the post-war era; still, a critical and fundamental review of the crimes within the medical system of the Nazi regime did not take place during this time. PMID:25980306

In the quest for new catalysts that can deliver single enantiomer pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, chemists have extensively mined the “chiral pool”, with little in the way of inexpensive, readily available building blocks now remaining. It is found that Werner complexes based upon the D3 symmetric chiral trication [Co(en)3]3+ (en = 1,2-ethylenediamine), which features an earth abundant metal and cheap ligand type, and was among the first inorganic compounds resolved into enantiomers 103 years ago, catalyze a valuable carbon–carbon bond forming reaction, the Michael addition of malonate esters to nitroalkenes, in high enantioselectivities and without requiring inert atmosphere conditions. The title catalysts, [Co((S,S)-dpen)3]3+ ((S,S)-33+) 3X–, employ a commercially available chiral ligand, (S,S)-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine. The rates and ee values are functions of the configuration of the cobalt center (Λ/Δ) and the counteranions, which must be lipophilic to solubilize the trication in nonaqueous media. The highest enantioselectivities are obtained with Λ and 2Cl–BArf–, 2BF4–BArf–, or 3BF4– salts (BArf– = B(3,5-C6H3(CF3)2)4–). The substrates are not activated by metal coordination, but rather by second coordination sphere hydrogen bonding involving the ligating NH2 groups. Crystal structures and NMR data indicate enthalpically stronger interactions with the NH moieties related by the C3 symmetry axis, as opposed to those related by the C2 symmetry axes; rate trends and other observations suggest this to be the catalytically active site. Both Λ- and Δ-(S,S)-33+ 2Cl–BArf– are effective catalysts for additions of β-ketoesters to RO2CN=NCO2R species (99–86% yields, 81–76% ee), which provide carbon–nitrogen bonds and valuable precursors to α-amino acids. PMID:27162946

In the quest for new catalysts that can deliver single enantiomer pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, chemists have extensively mined the "chiral pool", with little in the way of inexpensive, readily available building blocks now remaining. It is found that Werner complexes based upon the D3 symmetric chiral trication [Co(en)3](3+) (en = 1,2-ethylenediamine), which features an earth abundant metal and cheap ligand type, and was among the first inorganic compounds resolved into enantiomers 103 years ago, catalyze a valuable carbon-carbon bond forming reaction, the Michael addition of malonate esters to nitroalkenes, in high enantioselectivities and without requiring inert atmosphere conditions. The title catalysts, [Co((S,S)-dpen)3](3+) ((S,S)-3 (3+)) 3X(-), employ a commercially available chiral ligand, (S,S)-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine. The rates and ee values are functions of the configuration of the cobalt center (Λ/Δ) and the counteranions, which must be lipophilic to solubilize the trication in nonaqueous media. The highest enantioselectivities are obtained with Λ and 2Cl(-)BArf (-), 2BF4 (-)BArf (-), or 3BF4 (-) salts (BArf (-) = B(3,5-C6H3(CF3)2)4 (-)). The substrates are not activated by metal coordination, but rather by second coordination sphere hydrogen bonding involving the ligating NH2 groups. Crystal structures and NMR data indicate enthalpically stronger interactions with the NH moieties related by the C3 symmetry axis, as opposed to those related by the C2 symmetry axes; rate trends and other observations suggest this to be the catalytically active site. Both Λ- and Δ-(S,S)-3 (3+) 2Cl(-)BArf (-) are effective catalysts for additions of β-ketoesters to RO2CN=NCO2R species (99-86% yields, 81-76% ee), which provide carbon-nitrogen bonds and valuable precursors to α-amino acids. PMID:27162946

Using ab initio potential curves and dipole transition moments, cross-section calculations were performed for the direct continuum photodissociation of H{sub 2} through the B{sup 1}{Sigma}{sup +}{sub u} Werner) transitions. Partial cross-sections were obtained for wavelengths from 100 A to the dissociation threshold between the upper electronic state and each of the 301 bound rovibrational levels v''J'' within the ground electronic state. The resulting cross-sections are incorporated into three representative classes of interstellar gas models: diffuse clouds, photon-dominated regions, and X-ray-dominated regions (XDRs). The models, which used the CLOUDY plasma/molecular spectra simulation code, demonstrate that direct photodissociation is comparable to fluorescent dissociation (or spontaneous radiative dissociation, the Solomon process) as an H{sub 2} destruction mechanism in intense far-ultraviolet or X-ray-irradiated gas. In particular, changes in H{sub 2} rotational column densities are found to be as large as 20% in the XDR model with the inclusion of direct photodissociation. The photodestruction rate from some high-lying rovibrational levels can be enhanced by pumping from H Ly{beta} due to a wavelength coincidence with cross-section resonances resulting from quasi-bound levels of the upper electronic states. Given the relatively large size of the photodissociation data set, a strategy is described to create truncated, but reliable, cross-section data consistent with the wavelength resolving power of typical observations.

The praying mantis genus Majangella Giglio-Tos, 1915 is taxonomically treated with a re-description of the genus and the two included species, M. moultoni Giglio-Tos, 1915 and M. carli Giglio-Tos, 1915. The genus Ephippiomantis Werner, 1922 is newly determined to be the junior synonym of Majangella Giglio-Tos, 1915 based on morphology. The species for which the genus name Ephippiomantis was erected, E. ophirensis Werner, 1922, is re-described and now included within Majangella. This synonymy was determined herein as the direct result of erroneous higher-level placement of Majangella within the Majanginae by Giglio-Tos and was not recognized even after the genus was moved to within Liturgusidae. Action is now taken to move Majangella from within Liturgusidae to within the Hymenopodidae subfamily of Acromantinae, which is supported by morphological and molecular data. A key to the three species is provided along with habitus images, images of the head, pronotum, and foreleg, and illustrations of the male genitalia. Species distributions are presented and locality coordinates are provided in print as well as being available for download as a KML file viewable in Google Earth. PMID:24870860

... diabetes , diminished fertility, severe hardening of the arteries ( atherosclerosis ), thinning of the bones ( osteoporosis ), and some types ... most common causes of death are cancer and atherosclerosis. Related Information What does it mean if a ...

The purpose of this article is the analyses of discussion between Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg in the period 1925-1927. Their disputes, relating to the sources of scientific knowledge, its methods and the value of knowledge acquired in this way, are part of the characteristic for the European science discourse between rationalism and empirism. On the basis of some sources and literature on the subject, the epistemological positions of both scholars in the period were reconstructed. This episode, yet poorly known, is a unique example of scientific disputes, whose range covers a broad spectrum of methodological problems associated with the historical development of science. The conducted analysis sheds some light on the source of popularity of logical empirism in the first half of the 20th century. A particular emphasis is placed on the impact of the neopositivist ideas which reflect Heisenberg's research program, being the starting point for the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. The main assumption of logical empirism, concerning acquisition of scientific knowledge only by means of empirical procedures and logical analysis of the language of science, in view of the voiced by Einstein arguments, bears little relationship with actual testing practices in the historical aspect of the development of science. The criticism of Heisenberg's program, carried out by Einstein, provided arguments for the main critics of the neopositivist ideal and contributed to the bankruptcy of the idea of logical empirism, thereby starting a period of critical rationalism prosperity, arising from criticism of neopositivism and alluding to Einstein's ideas. PMID:25675728

A 49-year-old man was first seen in our department for the evaluation of scleroderma-like skin changes and a nonhealing ulcer on his leg from years before referral. His medical history was of long duration. His growth was stunted at the age of 12. At 21 years of age, the patient noted graying of the scalp hair, most prominent on his temples, and the process was progressively completed by the age of 23. At the same age, atrophy and thinning of the skin and loss of subcutaneous fat resulted in a tense, shining, and adherent appearance of his skin, most obvious on his face and extremities. Soon after, he developed a high-pitched, hoarse voice. He had undergone bilateral cataract surgery at the age of 30. Around the age of 46, he developed a unilateral nonhealing chronic leg ulcer (Figure 1). He had separated from his wife because of infertility. He was the first offspring of his second-degree healthy relative parents. The other 3 siblings had similar signs and symptoms. Our patient gave the history of premature graying of the hair of his younger brother at the age of 18 and his 2 younger sisters at the age of 12 and 16. His brother had recently received diagnoses of bilateral cataract and diabetes mellitus. All of the siblings had ceased growth from early adolescence. On physical examination, our patient's weight was 48 kg and his height was 150 cm. He had normal intelligence. He was speaking with a high-pitched and childish voice. He had a bird-like appearance with a beak-shaped nose. Mottled and diffuse pigmentation and poikiloderma appearance was conspicuous on his neck (Figure 2). The entire skin was smooth, shiny, and scleroderma-like, and a marked decrease in the subcutaneous fat was noted over the extremities. A deep cutaneous ulcer was evident on his slimmed leg. Digital ulcers were not found, and radial and dorsalis pedis pulses were palpable. Clinodactyly of the toes were conspicuous. His nails were dystrophic and he had used dentures from the age of 20. On examination of the external genitalia, his testes were smaller than normal. In the biopsy taken from the leg ulcer, there were no signs of malignancy. There were no signs ofosteomyelitis on x-ray. Biopsy of the normal skin revealed atrophic epidermis and thick dermis with hyalinization of the collagen fibers and absence of pilosebaceous structures (Figure 3). The patient's scalp hair was thin and sparse and there were few axillary and pubic hairs. His fasting plasma glucose level was normal. PMID:21137629

Propagation of a gel/glass transition boundary in a polymer is considered in the context of drug release. Drug molecules are assumed to undergo subdiffusive motion in the gel and be quiescent in the glass region. Exact self-similar solutions for the drug concentration are constructed, and the amount of released drug is determined as a function of time.

Where does Hawking radiation originate? A common picture is that it arises from excitations very near or at the horizon, and this viewpoint has supported the "firewall" argument and arguments for a key role for the UV-dependent entanglement entropy in describing the quantum mechanics of black holes. However, closer investigation of both the total emission rate and the stress tensor of Hawking radiation supports the statement that its source is a near-horizon quantum region, or "atmosphere," whose radial extent is set by the horizon radius scale. This is potentially important, since Hawking radiation needs to be modified to restore unitarity, and a natural assumption is that the scales relevant to such modifications are comparable to those governing the Hawking radiation. Moreover, related discussion suggests a resolution to questions regarding extra energy flux in "nonviolent" scenarios, that does not spoil black hole thermodynamics as governed by the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.

Notes that creating focus which leads to formulating a thesis is a task with which many writers have trouble. Describes a process model of conceptual development that helps students gain confidence in abstracting, conceptualizing, and formulating a thesis. (NH)

The exploding use of electricity in homes and industry in the second half of the 19th century was accompanied by many injuries and fatalities from electric currents. Their study by my father was the serendipitous outcome of his early work on possible blood pressure changes from electric currents in a career that started in internal medicine. It became his limited field of electro-pathology which embraced first aid, the care of the injured, histopathology and accident prevention. He was an enthusiastic teacher and collector of specimens, from tree trunks struck by lightning down to the microscopy of accidental and experimental electric lesions. PMID:24944049

This workshop is one of an annual series covering penetration phenomena of charged particles in matter. This specific workshop includes electron scattering, ion and atom scattering, stopping powers, and cluster ion impacts on solids. Abstracts were prepared for individual items in the proceedings for inclusion in the data base. (GHT)

Background Atlantolacerta andreanskyi is an enigmatic lacertid lizard that, according to the most recent molecular analyses, belongs to the tribe Eremiadini, family Lacertidae. It is a mountain specialist, restricted to areas above 2400 m of the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco with apparently no connection between the different populations. In order to investigate its phylogeography, 92 specimens of A. andreanskyi were analyzed from eight different populations across the distribution range of the species for up to 1108 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA (12S, ND4 and flanking tRNA-His) and 2585 base pairs of nuclear DNA including five loci (PDC, ACM4, C-MOS, RAG1, MC1R). Results The results obtained with both concatenated and coalescent approaches and clustering methods, clearly show that all the populations analyzed present a very high level of genetic differentiation for the mitochondrial markers used and are also generally differentiated at the nuclear level. Conclusions These results indicate that A. andreanskyi is an additional example of a montane species complex. PMID:22946997

This paper examines the process of self-translation undertaken by German exile writers who translated their own works, written in English, the language of their host country, back into their mother tongue, German. It postulates that the necessary precondition for self-translation is not just bilinguality but also biculturality and that it is this…

Researchers from the University of Queensland of New South Wales provided guidance to designers regarding the hydraulic performance of embankment dam stepped spillways. Their research compares a number of high-quality physical model data sets from multiple laboratories, emphasizing the variability ...

WRN belongs to the RecQ family of DNA helicases and it plays a role in recombination, replication, telomere maintenance and long-patch base excision repair. Here, we demonstrate that WRN efficiently unwinds DNA substrates containing a 1-nucleotide gap in the translocating DNA strand, but when the gap size is increased to 3-nucleotides unwinding activity significantly declines. In contrast, E. coli UvrD (3'-->5' helicase), which recognizes nicks in DNA to initiate unwinding, does not unwind past a 1-nucleotide gap. This unique ability of WRN to bypass gaps supports its involvement in DNA replication and LP-BER where such gaps can be produced by glycosylases and the apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1). Furthermore, we tested telomere repeat binding factor 2 (TRF2), both variants 1 and 2 of protector of telomeres 1 (POT1v1 and POT1v2) and RPA on telomeric DNA substrates containing much bigger gaps than 3-nucleotides in order to determine whether unwinding could be facilitated through WRN-protein interaction. Interestingly, POT1v1 and RPA are capable of stimulating WRN helicase on gapped DNA and 5'-overhang substrates, respectively. PMID:19262689

Presented is an insight into man's idea about physics and being a physicist in the days when Heisenberg, P. A. M. Dirac, Louis de Broglic and other famous physicists were young men. Heisenberg is compared to Newton, inventing new math as he needed it. Emphasis is placed on the fact that he was not a Nazi sympathizer. (EB)

Optimized procedures for the previously reported conversions of 1,3-diiodobenzene and perfluorohexyliodide (Rf6I; copper, DMSO, 140 °C) to 1,3-C6H4(Rf6)2 (3; 86-70%) and 3 to Br(3,5-C6H3(Rf6)2 (2; NBS, H2SO4/CF3CO2H; 88-75%) are described. The latter is converted (t-BuLi, BCl3) to the "fluorous BArf" salt NaB(3,5-C6H3(Rf6)2)4 (1 or NaBArf6; 77-70%), as given earlier. When orange aqueous solutions of [Co(en)3]Cl3 (en = ethylenediamine) are treated with perfluoro(methylcyclohexane) (PFMC) solutions of 1 (1:3 mol ratio), the aqueous phase decolorizes and [Co(en)3](BArf6)3 can be isolated from the fluorous phase (96%). Similar reactions with the trans-1,2-cyclohexanediamine analogue [Co(R,R-chxn)3]Cl3 and [Ru(bipy)3]Cl2 give [Co-(R,R-chxn)3](BArf6)3 (92%) and [Ru(bipy)3](BArf6)2 (95%). All of these salts are isolated as hydrates and exhibit toluene/PFMC partition coefficients of ≤1:≥99, establishing that the anion BArf6(-) can efficiently transport polar polycations into highly nonpolar fluorous phases. When equal volumes of CH2Cl2 and PFMC are charged with the "nonfluorous" BArf (B(3,5-C6H3-(CF3)2)4) salt [Co(en)3](BArf)3 and 3.0 equiv of the fluorous salt NaBArf6, the cobalt trication partitions predominantly into the fluorous phase (64:36). The arene 2 crystallizes in a polar space group (tetragonal, I4, Z = 8) with fluorous and nonfluorous domains and all eight bromine atoms located essentially on one face of the unit cell. PMID:23895404

Single crystals of the title Co(II) complex, [Co(stpy) 4(NCS) 2] [stpy= trans-4-styrylpyridine] are prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and UV-visible spectroscopy and X-ray crystal structure determination. The complex crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pna2 1 with unit-cell parameters, a=32.058(3), b=15.362(5), c=9.818(5) Å, and Z=4. The structure consists of discrete monomeric units of [Co(stpy) 4(NCS) 2]. The equatorial positions of the Co(II) polyhedron are occupied by nitrogen atoms of the four stpy ligands and the axial positions are occupied by the nitrogen atoms of the two thiocyanate ions. The unit cell packing reveals interpenetration of styryl groups owing to conformational flexibility of phenyl and pyridyl rings in stpy ligands. Thus, it leads to efficient packing of the crystal lattice leaving no space available for guest inclusion. IR spectra reveal nitrogen coordination from stpy and terminal -NCS coordination of the thiocyanate group. The optical reflectance bands 475, 540 (shoulder) and 1022 nm suggest octahedral geometry in accordance with the X-ray data. However, the optical spectrum of acetonitrile solution shows an intense band at 615 nm and a weak shoulder at 570 nm suggesting participation of the solvent molecules in the coordination sphere. These bands indicate the presence of both tetrahedral and octahedral species in solution.

Fifty eight Chaunus ictericus and 42 C. schneideri specimens were collected on São Cristóvão district, Três Barras, SC for helminthological studies. Fourteen helminth species were diagnosed, from which only five species were found on both hosts. Chaunus ictericus showed higher values of species richness (2,8448+/-1,1516) and diversity (H = 1,374), with mild dominance (1-D = 0,642, J = 0,5528), in comparison with C. schneideri (0,6428+/-1,007; H = 1,165; 1-D = 0,5822 e J = 0,5985). Also, descriptors of helminthic infection were superior in the former host. Little number of shared species between the analyzed toad species suggests parasitic host-specificity. PMID:20059839

In their paper Gross et al., 2011 present an excellent description of a series of outcrops from the Eirunepe region in western Amazonia (Brazil). The authors interpret these sediments as relics of a Late Miocene anastomosing fluvial system and conclude that the paleogeography of the entire western Amazon region must have been characterized by this environmental setting. They also imply that therefore a long-lived lake system - or megawetland - never existed. We contend this assumption for some reasons, amongst them, the most important are: (1) this is an inconsistent overgeneralized conclusion; (2) The authors make references to previous scientific works we published which we consider incorrect, and therefore can mislead their readers.

Glutathione (GSH) is present as the most abundant low molecular weight thiol (LMWT) in virtually all mitochondria-bearing eucaryotic cells, often at millimolar concentrations (Meister, 1988). Functions of GSH include roles in DNA and protein synthesis, maintenance of cell membra...

Farmers are commonly regarded as stewards of the land. Farmers have, however, become cynical toward nature (Meister, Hest, & Burnett, 2009) and distrustful of the government (Cantrill, 2003). This study examines whether or not that cynicism and distrust is reflected in U.S. farmers' opinions of and future participation in conservation buffer…

Discussed is a technique used by Alfred Werner to resolve inorganic coordination compounds. The materials, procedures and analysis necessary for undergraduates to repeat this procedure are described. (CW)

Stefan Bengtsson's commentary about policy hegemony discusses the alternative discourses of socialism, nationalism, and globalism. However, Stefan does not adequately demonstrate how these discourses can overcome the Dominant Western Worldview (DWW), which is imbued with anthropocentrism. It will be argued here that most policy choices promoting…

Examines Martha Muchow's work from the perspective of Heinz Werner's organismic-developmental theory, in terms of its stress on the environment as perceived and experienced by the child and its relevance to Werner's concept of differing "spheres of reality." (Author/SO)

This paper examines how Piaget, Werner, and Gardner differ regarding the roles of cognition, intelligence, and learning in the developmental process. Piaget believes in the predominance of genetic factors. Werner stresses the influence of biological factors, while Gardner proposes that the environment plays a greater influence in how intelligence…

Bounds on the effective elastic moduli of randomly oriented aggregates of hexagonal, trigonal, and tetragonal crystals are derived using the variational principles of Hashin and Shtrikman. The bounds are considerably narrower than the widely used Voigt and Reuss bounds. The Voigt-Reuss-Hill average lies within the Hashin-Shtrikman bounds in nearly all cases. Previous bounds of Peselnick and Meister are shown to be special cases of the present results.

This article presents results of solid-liquid phase change, the Stefan Problem, where melting is driven internal heat generation, in a cylindrical geometry. The comparison between a quasi-static analytical solution for Stefan numbers less than one and numerical solutions shows good agreement. The computational results of phase change with internal heat generation show how convection cells form in the liquid region. A scale analysis of the same problem shows four distinct regions of the melting process.

Presents the author's recollections of the emergence of the new quantum theory and his associations with such men as Oskar Klein, Niels Bohr, Frederick Hund, Werner Heisenberg, J. J. Thomson, and others. (GS)

Werner Heisenberg's work is the foundation for many topics of present research. This is also true for the search for extra gauge bosons. The prospects of future colliders in this search are shortly mentioned.

Thirty-five Werner H. Kirsten student interns toured the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda in August to learn about the services and opportunities available.

This chart describes the Skylab student experiment In-Vitro Immunology, proposed by Todd A. Meister of Jackson Heights, New York. He suggested an in-vitro observation of the effects of zero-gravity on a presipitin-type antigen-antibody reaction, as compared with the same reaction carried out in an Earth-based laboratory. In March 1972, NASA and the National Science Teachers Association selected 25 experiment proposals for flight on Skylab. Science advisors from the Marshall Space Flight Center aided and assisted the students in developing the proposals for flight on Skylab.

The achievements of the Jesuits from the Austrian and Bohemian provinces, who have published books on chemistry are focused. Their links with the area of today's Slovenia are particularly exposed. The guidelines which have enabled prompt victories of the ideas about the structure of matter of Jesuit Ru|er Bokovi are indicated. Inconceivable fast spread of Bošković's adherents in the Hapsburg monarchy is compared with a similar rapid introduction of the kinetic theories of atoms of Slovene Jožef Stefan and Ludwig Boltzmann in the same geographical area. Boltzmann was not only Stefan's best student, but he also married a half Slovenian maid. PMID:27333568

ABSTRACT The present paper examines the Eckhartian motives in Derrida's critique of Levinas’ concept of the “Other”. The focus is put on the Husserlian concept of alter ego that is at the core of the debate between Levinas and Derrida. Against Levinas, Derrida argues that alter is not an epithet that expresses a mere accidental modification of the ego, but an indicator of radical exteriority. Interestingly enough, this position is virtually identical with Meister Eckhart's interpretation of the famous proposition from Exodus 3:14 “I am who I am”. Eckhart claims that the pronoun ego denotes the absolutely simple substance of the uncreated intellect, which can, by definition, never receive any accidental determination whatsoever. The reduplication of the “I am” is by no means tautological, but expresses the intra-divine dynamic of the Father who engenders the Son as his perfect equal and alter ego. This transcendental conception of egoity also governs the relationships between human beings: the ethical encounter with the “Other” requires that we consider them not primarily in their empirical, contingent existence but in the transcendental purity of their indeclinable ego, which is identical with the incessant act in which God knows himself in the Son as his absolutely Other. Thus, Meister Eckhart's approach proves, against Levinas, that it is possible to develop an “egological” philosophy that avoids the pitfalls of a naturalistic and potentially violent ontology of the subject. PMID:27152029

A technique of dynamically defined measures is developed and its relation to the theory of equilibrium states is shown. The technique uses Carathéodory's method and the outer measure introduced in a previous work by I. Werner [Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 140(2), 333-347 (2006), 10.1017/S0305004105009072]. As an application, equilibrium states for contractive Markov systems [I. Werner, J. London Math. Soc. 71(1), 236-258 (2005), 10.1112/S0024610704006088] are obtained.

The interrelationship between the various forms of the Planck radiation equation is discussed. A differential equation that gives intensity or energy density of radiation per unit wavelength or per unit frequency is emphasized. The Stefan-Boltzmann Law and the change in the glow of a hot body with temperature are also discussed. (KR)

We report on the physics around an incandescent lamp. Using a consumer-grade digital camera, we combine electrical and optical measurements to explore Planck's law of black-body radiation. This simple teaching experiment is successfully used to measure both Stefan's and Planck's constants. Our measurements lead to a strikingly accurate value for…

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell, and William E. Moerner "for the development of superresolved fluorescence microscopy" can be seen as a combined prize for single-molecule detection and superresolution imaging. Neurons, arguably the most morphologically complex cell type, are the subject of choice for this application, now generically called "nanoscopy." PMID:25521373

When physicists at Trinity College Dublin began looking after an antique funnel full of pitch, they had no idea their humble experiment would spawn one of 2013's most “viral” news stories. Shane D Bergin, Stefan Hutzler and Denis Weaire reflect on the value of “slow science” to a hyper-connected, social-media world.

Today many authors and artists adapt works of classic literature into a medium more "user friendly" to the increasingly visual student population. Stefan Petrucha and Kody Chamberlain's version of "Beowulf" is one example. The graphic novel captures the entire epic in arresting images and contrasts the darkness of the setting and characters with…

This month’s column reviews the theory and current applications of pulsed electric field (PEF) processing for fruits and vegetables to improve their safety and quality. This month’s column coauthor, Stefan Toepfl, is advanced research manager at the German Institute of Food Technologies and professo...

In this essay Stefan Neubert argues that John Dewey was a philosopher of reconstruction and that the best use we can make of him today is to reconstruct his work in and for our own contexts. Neubert distinguishes three necessary and equally important components of the overall project of reconstructing Deweyan pragmatism: first, to make strong and…

Why is John Dewey still such an important philosopher today? Writing from the perspective of the Cologne Program of Interactive Constructivism, Stefan Neubert tries in what follows to give one possible answer to this question. Neubert notes that Cologne constructivism considers Dewey in many respects as one of the most important predecessors of…

Based on Snyder's idea of quantized space-time, we derive a new generalized uncertainty principle and new modified density of states. Accordingly, we discuss the influence of the modified generalized uncertainty principle on the black hole entropy and the influence of the modified density of states on the Stefan-Boltzman law.

In this chapter, Stefan LoBuglio discusses the politics and practices of educational programs for adults in correctional facilities. To begin, LoBuglio provides an overview of the field of corrections, including various types of facilities and correctional programs, as well as demographic and educational data on the U.S. incarcerated population…

In his 2001 article "Teaching to Lie and Obey: Nietzsche on Education", Stefan Ramaekers defends Nietzsche's concept of perspectivism against the charge that it is relativistic. He argues that perspectivism is not relativistic because it denies the dichotomy between the "true" world and the "seeming" world, a dichotomy central to claims to…

A mathematical model of fibrin polymerization is described. The problem of the propagation of phase transition wave is reduced to a nonlinear Stefan problem. A one-dimensional discontinuity fitting difference scheme is described, and the results of one-dimensional computations are presented.

Most humanities courses rarely require students to create the kinds of work they are studying. Sean Gouglas, Stefan Sinclair, Olaf Ellefson, and Scott Sharplin outline the value of this rare experience by describing an assignment in their graduate humanities computing course in which students examined hypermedia narratives by authoring a…

This article explores why some universities may be "invisible" to adults in their local communities. It suggests that funding changes in UK higher education, particularly those initiated by the Browne Review in 2010, may reinforce such a divide. The article draws on Stefan Collini's critiques of government policy, particularly in relation to the…

Numerical investigations have been carried out to examine the characteristics of unsteady freezing heat transfer in water-saturated porous media. Also, the effects of Stefan number and of the ratio if cooling to heating temperature are discussed for the unsteady freezing heat transfer.

In a previous article in this journal, we reported on a laboratory activity in which students used a derivation from the Stefan-Boltzmann law to calculate planetary temperatures and compare them to measured values from various (mostly online) sources. The calculated temperatures matched observed values very well with the exceptions of Venus and…

The different responses, interpretations, and consequent critiques of Stefan Lars Bengtsson's "Hegemony and the Politics of Policy Making for Education for Sustainable Development" highlight how the various critical outlooks are framed by, seemingly, incommensurable positions, or figures of reasoning, that inform their thinking.…

Stefan Ramaekers and Joris Vlieghe's "Infants, childhood and language in Agamben and Cavell: education as transformation" is an insightful discussion of an important facet of educational experience. In the article, they consider a Fred Astaire dance sequence from the 1953 Vincente Minnelli film, "The Band Wagon," in combination…

The peculiarities of pulsed laser melting and evaporation of the superconducting ceramics are analyzed by means of numerical simulation. The appearance of the overheated metastable states in solid and liquid phases is shown as a result of the phase front dynamics and volume nature of laser energy release. A method of dynamic adaptation for the multifront Stefan problem is proposed.

This collection of papers presents essays by German scholars and practitioners writing from within the German Didaktik tradition and interpretive essays by U.S. scholars. After an introduction, "Starting a Dialogue: A Beginning Conversation between Didaktik and the Curriculum Traditions" (Stefan Hopmann and Kurt Riquarts), there are 18 chapters in…

In this essay Luc Van den Berge and Stefan Ramaekers take the idea(l) of "scientific parenting" as an example of ambiguities that are typical of our late-modern condition. On the one hand, parenting seems like a natural thing to do, which makes "scientific parenting" sound like an oxymoron; on the other hand, a disengaged…

This response problematizes Stefan Bengtsson's (2016) defense of education for sustainable development. He argues that sustainable development and education for sustainable development are not globalizing and hegemonic discourses, as some have claimed, and uses case-study analysis of Vietnamese policy documents to support his claims. He observes…

In this article we propose an activity aimed at introductory students to help them understand the Stefan-Boltzmann and Wien's displacement laws. It only requires simple materials that are available at any school: an incandescent lamp, a variable dc energy supply, and a computer to run an interactive simulation of the blackbody spectrum.…

It is from historical perspectives on more than 40 years of environment related education theories, practices, and policies that we revisit what might otherwise become a tired conversation about environmental education and sustainable development. Our contemporary critical analysis of Stefan Bengtsson's research about policy making leads us to…

The report gives results of a laboratory pilot-scale evaluation of a Flux Force/Condensation (FF/C) scrubber for collecting fine particles, those smaller than 2 micrometers in diameter. FF/C scrubbing includes the effects of diffusiophoresis, thermophoresis, Stefan flow, and part...

In response to Stefan Bengtsson's search for alternatives to Education for Sustainable Development practices outside the mainstream of the state and its policy formulations, this response outlines how our journey, experiences, and approaches reflect a de-professionalizing encounter with autonomous places of learning emerging from indigenous…

Two lectures on the development of Berlin's adult education centers after World War II are included. The lecture by Werner Korthaase begins by describing the situation prior to 1920, when Berlin was divided into independent districts, each with its own administrative authorities. It then describes the reestablishment of the local adult education…

This paper advances the hypothesis that young children use narrative play and stories to construct two types of fiction, the worlds of "what is" and "what if." Heinz Werner's conceptualization of children's spheres of reality, in which actions, symbols, and events are constructed in particular ways, is used as a theoretical framework for…

Introduces the 1983 SRCD symposium on Martha Muchow, the German child psychologist and associate of William Stern and Heinz Werner at the University of Hamburg. Her work integrates developmental and ecological approaches to the study of children's knowledge of and interaction with their physical surroundings. (Author/SO)

We propose a natural generalization of bipartite Werner and isotropic states to multipartite systems consisting of an arbitrary even number of d-dimensional subsystems (qudits). These generalized states are invariant under the action of local unitary operations. We study basic properties of multipartite invariant states and present necessary and sufficient separability criteria.

In 1955, the first longitudinal study of resilience began on the island of Kauai. This research continues to the present. This article presents an interview with Emmy Werner, the principal investigator. In a series of five books published over a period of thirty years, she demonstrated the remarkable ability of children from difficult backgrounds…

The field of college developmental reading does not have a unified, agreed-upon approach to creating effective and efficient readers at the college level, as Reynolds and Werner (2003) have pointed out. For example, Keefe and Meyer (1991) assert the appropriateness of a holistic, whole-language approach for adult readers, while Bohr (2003)…

This theme issue focuses on skills and qualifications in future world markets in general and in the Single Market within the European Community (EC). The first two articles are "Anthropocentric Production Systems: Advanced Manufacturing is Based on Skilled People" (Werner Wobbe) and "New Skills or a New Concept of 'the Job'"? (Enrique Retuerto de…

2Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut) Föhringer Ring 6, D-80805 MünchenAbstract. We have asked how the Heisenberg relations of space and time change if we replace the Lorentz group by a q-deformed Lorentz group (Lorek et al. 1997).

The play Copenhagen has attracted the attention of a large audience in several countries. The hypothetical discussion between two of the giants in physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, has inspired us to start a theoretical and experimental exploration of quantum physics. This theme has been used in Stockholm Science Laboratory for audiences…

The play Copenhagen has attracted the attention of a large audience in several countries. The hypothetical discussion in Copenhagen between two of the giants in physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, has inspired us to start a theoretical and experimental exploration of quantum physics. This theme has been used in Stockholm Science Laboratory for audiences of both students and the general public.

An elementary treatment of the critical mass used in nuclear weapons is presented and applied to an analysis of the wartime activities of the German nuclear program. In particular, the work of Werner Heisenberg based on both wartime and postwar documents is discussed.

The recent release of draft letters from Niels Bohr to Werner Heisenberg provides new insights into German fission research during World War II and into the reasons for its relative failure. I refute claims of deliberate failure and briefly summarize other contributing factors.

The book Physics in Mind: a Quantum View of the Brain certainly aims high. Written by the eminent biophysicist Werner Loewenstein, its goal is nothing less than a theory that explains our sense of conscious existence, built from the bottom up.

All four of the most important figures in the early twentieth-century development of quantum physics--Niels Bohr, Erwin Schroedinger, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli--had strong interests in the traditional mind--brain, or "hard," problem. This paper reviews their approach to this problem, showing the influence of Bohr's complementarity…

Based on the seminal work of Emmy Werner (1990), practitioners have recognized the powerful role protective and risk factors play in the development of children's emotional and behavioral adjustment. Researchers have concluded that differences in children's reactions to difficult events are influenced by the type and level of protective factors in…

Discusses two widely practiced principles of management (protecting the rear and knowing the limits of a job) as they relate to the philosophy of education. The article examines Werner Jaeger's definition of education in his 1939 book, "Paideia," as well as other definitions that have helped shape current educational management. (SM)

This article represents an amazing reversal of linguistic analysis. Usually Montessori language is translated into "state" terminology. In this case, Sarah Werner Andrews puts state quality assessment terms into Montessori language. For example, domains for school readiness include 1) physical wellbeing and motor development, 2) social…

Purpose: This study examined the empirical evidence for using the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test: Third Edition (SPELT-3; Dawson, Stout, & Eyer, 2003) to diagnose language impairment in preschool children. The SPELT-3 is a revision of the SPELT-II (Werner & Kresheck, 1983), which has been proven in the past to have high levels of…

Physical education is a prime content area for interdisciplinary learning. The movement components of physical education can be used as a medium through which children are provided with opportunities to practice and strengthen language skills. Cone, Werner, Cone, and Woods (1998, p. 4) agree: "interdisciplinary learning is an educational process…

Reported here are the results of an open controlled study on the use of GM1 in cases of ischemic strokes in its acute phase. A statistically significant improvement was observed in cases treated with GM1 for neurological deficits (assessed by Mathew's rating scale, modified by Fritz-Werner) at 21, 60 and 120 days and for disability at 120 days. PMID:2206015

Previous research indicates that adults who live on cul-de-sac streets are more likely to have positive experiences with neighbors than residents of other street types (Brown and Werner, 1985; Hochschild Jr, 2011; Mayo Jr, 1979; Willmott, 1963). The present research ascertains whether street design has an impact on children's neighborhood…

The program of the 130th meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) explored the leadership challenges posed by the juxtapositions of cooperation and competing priorities in a consortial environment. Following an opening and welcome (Gloria Werner, ARL Presiding President), and a Keynote Address, "Defining Successful Leadership" (David…

In early 1948, less than three years after the end of the Second World War in Europe, Werner Heisenberg - the Nobel laureate and physicist leader of the failed German atomic bomb project - was invited to the UK as part of an attempt to repair relations between British and German physicists.

... addressed in the EIS/LEIS. This public scoping process starts with the publication of this Notice of Intent.... Werner, Lieutenant Commander, Office of the Judge Advocate General, U.S. Navy, Alternate Federal Register... research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) and training missions at NAWSCL, in addition to...

This book takes stock of the existing socioeconomic knowledge about a range of the core social issues of the information society. Chapter 1, "Information Infrastructures or Societies?" (Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, Werner Herrmann), is an introduction. Part 1, "Space, Economy, and the Global Information Society" looks at the processes of economic…

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the revival of Heinz Werner's organismic-developmental theory by considering some of its key claims in relation to contemporary developmental theory and research. The organismic-developmental definition of development in terms of differentiation and integration is first discussed in relation to…

Background. Associations between positive behaviour, emotion understanding and verbal ability have been reported in studies of preschoolers (Cassidy, Werner, Rourke, Zubernis, & Balaraman, 2003), but have yet to be investigated in younger children. Methods. In this study the performance of 36 toddlers (17 boys and 19 girls; mean age = 29 months,…

Schools are natural environments for helping all children cultivate the resilience that resides within them. Research shows that schools are filled with the conditions that promote resilience (Werner, 2003). These include caring, encouraging relationships, role models, and mentors (Theron & Engelbrecht, 2012; Thomsen, 2002; Walsh, 2012); clear…

The relation between short-term and long-term change (also known as learning and development) has been of great interest throughout the history of developmental psychology. Werner and Vygotsky believed that the two involved basically similar progressions of qualitatively distinct knowledge states; behaviorists such as Kendler and Kendler believed…

Three Werner H. Kirsten student interns claimed awards at the 35th Annual Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair—and got a shot at the national competition—for imaginative projects that reached out to the rings of Saturn and down to the details of advanced cancer diagnostics.

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. After giving a description of the basic physical phenomena to be modelled, we begin by formulating a sharp -interface free-boundary model for the destruction of superconductivity by an applied magnetic field, under isothermal and anisothermal conditions, which takes the form of a vectorial Stefan model similar to the classical scalar Stefan model of solid/liquid phase transitions and identical in certain two-dimensional situations. This model is found sometimes to have instabilities similar to those of the classical Stefan model. We then describe the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity, in which the sharp interface is 'smoothed out' by the introduction of an order parameter, representing the number density of superconducting electrons. By performing a formal asymptotic analysis of this model as various parameters in it tend to zero we find that the leading order solution does indeed satisfy the vectorial Stefan model. However, at the next order we find the emergence of terms analogous to those of 'surface tension' and 'kinetic undercooling' in the scalar Stefan model. Moreover, the 'surface energy' of a normal/superconducting interface is found to take both positive and negative values, defining Type I and Type II superconductors respectively. We discuss the response of superconductors to external influences by considering the nucleation of superconductivity with decreasing magnetic field and with decreasing temperature respectively, and find there to be a pitchfork bifurcation to a superconducting state which is subcritical for Type I superconductors and supercritical for Type II superconductors. We also examine the effects of boundaries on the nucleation field, and describe in more detail the nature of the superconducting solution in Type II superconductors--the so-called 'mixed state'. Finally, we present some open questions concerning both the modelling and analysis of

We undertook a panbiogeographic analysis of 23 species of the Epicauta maculata group of America-Epicauta abeona Pinto, Epicauta adspersa (Klug), Epicauta andersoni Werner, Epicauta atomaria (Germar), Epicauta apache Pinto, Epicauta cavernosa (Courbon), Epicauta dilatipennis Pic, Epicauta fulvicornis (Burmeister), Epicauta horni Champion, Epicauta jeffersi Pinto, Epicauta koheleri Denier, Epicauta lizeri Denier, E. maculata (Say), Epicauta magnomaculata Martin, Epicauta minutepunctata Borchmann, Epicauta nigropunctata (Blanchard), Epicauta normalis Werner, Epicauta ocellata (Dugès), Epicauta pardalis LeConte, picauta phoenix Werner, Epicauta pluvialis Borchmann, Epicauta proscripta Werner, Epicauta rubella Denier, and Epicauta ventralis Werner-with the purpose of analyzing the distributional data for taxa, to establish patterns of distribution of an ancestral biota and areas where these groups have interacted. Based on the overlap of 20 individual tracks, four generalized tracks constituted by different numbers of species were identified; two of them are located in the Nearctic region and the Mexican transition zone (tracks "A" and "B"), and the other two are distributed in the Neotropical region and the South America transition zone ("C", "D"). Six nodes were recognized: Two of them are included in the Nearctic Region, node 'I' located in northern USA and node 'II' located in southwestern USA, both at the intersection of the tracks "A" and "B". The other four are included in the Neotropical Region at the intersection of the tracks "C" and "D": Node 'III' is located in Chaco province; node 'IV' is located in Parana Forest province; node 'V' is located in the northwest of Argentina in Puna province, and node 'VI' is located in Monte province. PMID:26174956

The picture showing the little Joseph Meister being treated against rabies under Louis Pasteur's eyes, on July 6, 1885, has quickly become a symbol of the triumphant progress of medicine, even though diseases with high mortality like tuberculosis or diphtheria could still not be healed with efficient therapeutic means. But before the discoveries of Pasteur, what was actually, in daily practice, the kind of response an ordinary doctor could give to human rabies? A Swiss physician, Charles-Hector Guisan, developed a therapy based on the use of sodium arsenate, which he published in the columns of the Gazette des Hôpitaux civils et militaires in 1854. This arsenic therapy was to be put into practice on a larger scale in the canton of Fribourg by Dr Jean-Louis Schaller (1816-1880), who meticulously wrote observations in a notebook on the cases of 13 persons wounded by a rabid dog in 1855. PMID:11810985

In order to obtain formulas providing estimates for elastic constants of random polycrystals of laminates, some known rigorous bounds of Peselnick, Meister, and Watt are first simplified. Then, some new self-consistent estimates are formulated based on the resulting analytical structure of these bounds. A numerical study is made, assuming first that the internal structure (i.e., the laminated grain structure) is not known, and then that it is known. The purpose of this aspect of the study is to attempt to quantify the differences in the predictions of properties of the same system being modeled when such internal structure of the composite medium and spatial correlation information is and is not available.

This report serves as a resource for policymakers who wish to learn more about levelized cost of energy (LCOE) calculations, including cost-based incentives. The report identifies key renewable energy cost modeling options, highlights the policy implications of choosing one approach over the other, and presents recommendations on the optimal characteristics of a model to calculate rates for cost-based incentives, FITs, or similar policies. These recommendations shaped the design of NREL's Cost of Renewable Energy Spreadsheet Tool (CREST), which is used by state policymakers, regulators, utilities, developers, and other stakeholders to assist with analyses of policy and renewable energy incentive payment structures. Authored by Jason S. Gifford and Robert C. Grace of Sustainable Energy Advantage LLC and Wilson H. Rickerson of Meister Consultants Group, Inc.

Fluid seepage of reduced organic compounds such as methane impacts the geology and biology of the seabed by inducing complex, microbially mediated biogeochemical processes. Authigenic carbonates serve as one of the few permanent records of these of dynamic biogeochemical interactions that involve methanogenesis, methanotrophy, sulfate reduction and carbonate precipitation. Meister et al. (2007) investigated deep-sea dolomite formation at Sites 1227-1229 on the Peru margin, where dolomite precipitation occurs in association with organic carbon-rich continental margin sediments. Geochemical and petrographic studies indicated episodic dolomite precipitation at a dynamic sulfate methane transition zone (SMTZ). Variations in δ13C values of these dolomites between +15‰ and -15‰ were attributed to non-steady state conditions as a result of the upward and downward migration of the SMTZ. Our study aims to better understand the biogeochemical processes associated with authigenic carbonate precipitation in this dynamic deep-sea setting. We focused our efforts on IODP Site 1230, which is a gas-hydrate-bearing site that shows sulphate consumption within the uppermost 10 m below the seafloor as well as high methane production. Using a multi proxy approach, we combined X-ray diffraction, stable isotope geochemistry, and trace metal analysis of authigenic carbonates to elucidate conditions for authigenic carbonate formation. Results from Site 1230 are compared to Sites 1227 and 1229, which lacks gas hydrates and is characterized by high pore water sulfate and low methane concentrations. This study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of authigenic carbonate formation and associated biogeochemical processes in continental margin sediments. Meister, P., Mckenzie, J. A., Vasconcelos, C., Bernasconi, S., Frank, M., Gutjhar, M. and SCHRAG, D. P. (2007), Dolomite formation in the dynamic deep biosphere: results from the Peru Margin. Sedimentology, 54: 1007-1032.

Damages from noise and vibration are increasing every year, and most of which are noises between floors in deteriorated building caused by floor impact sound. In this study, the floor vibration of the deteriorated buildings constructed with the concrete slabs of thickness no more than 150 mm was evaluated by the vibration impact sound. This highly reliable study was conducted to assess floor vibration according with the serviceability evaluation standard of Reiher / Meister and Koch and vibration evaluation standard of ISO and AIJ. Designed pressure for the concrete slab sample of floor vibration assessment was 24MPa, and the sample was manufactured pursuant to KS F 2865 and JIS A 1440-2 with size of 3200 mm × 3200 mm × 140 mm. Tests were conducted twice with accelerometers, and Fast Fourier Transform was performed for comparative analysis by the vibration assessment criteria. The peak displacement from Test 1 was in the range of 0.00869 - 0.02540 mm; the value of peak frequency ranged from 18 to 27 Hz, and the average value was 22Hz. The peak acceleration value from Test 2 was in the range of 0.47 - 1.07 % g; the value of peak frequency was 18.5 - 22.57 Hz, and the average was 21Hz. The vibration was apparently recognizable in most cases according to the Reiher/Meister standard. In case of Koch graph for the damage assessment of the structure, the vibration was at the medium level and causes no damage to the building structure. The measured vibration results did not exceed the damage limit or serviceability limit of building according to the vibration assessment criteria of ISO and residential assessment guidelines provided by Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ).

We show that when entropy variations are included and special relativity is imposed, the thermodynamics of a perfect fluid leads to two distinct families of equations of state whose relativistic compressible Euler equations are of Nishida type. (In the non-relativistic case there is only one.) The first corresponds exactly to the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law, and the other, emerges most naturally in the ultra-relativistic limit of a γ-law gas, the limit in which the temperature is very high or the rest mass very small. We clarify how these two relativistic equations of state emerge physically, and provide a unified analysis of entropy variations to prove global existence in one space dimension for the two distinct 3 × 3 relativistic Nishida-type systems. In particular, as far as we know, this provides the first large data global existence result for a relativistic perfect fluid constrained by the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law.

The distribution of the alleles and haplotypes for blood groups A1A2B0, MNSs, RHESUS, P1, KELL-CELLANO and biochemical markers of the alleles of loci AMY2, HPA, GC, C3, TF, BF, CP, PI (including subtypes) were studied in 125 Moldavian individuals from Karahasani settlement, Stefan-Voda District, Republic of Moldavia. The results show that the gene pool of Moldavians is similar to those of Southeastern European populations. PMID:16623088

The blackbody theory is revisited in the case of thermal electromagnetic fields inside uniaxial anisotropic media in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath. When these media are hyperbolic, we show that the spectral energy density of these fields radically differs from that predicted by Planck's blackbody theory and that the maximum of the spectral energy density determined by Wien's law is redshifted. Finally, we derive the Stefan-Boltzmann law for hyperbolic media which becomes a quadratic function of the heat bath temperature.

An infrared artificial thermochromic material composed of a metamaterial emitter and a bimaterial micro-electro-mechanical system is investigated. A differential emissivity of over 30% is achieved between 623 K and room temperature. The passive metamaterial device demonstrates the ability to independently control the peak wavelength and temperature dependence of the emissivity, and achieves thermal emission following a super Stefan-Boltzmann power curve. PMID:26619382

A numerical method for solving phase change problems involving a moving heat source is presented and illustrated by a two-dimensional example. The method uses a fixed grid and does not require the implementation of the Stefan condition at the solid-liquid interface; the procedure can thus be easily implemented using existing fixed grid codes. The problem considered as an example involves natural convection flow in the molten metal during tungsten inert gas welding.

Calculated triple differential cross sections are presented for the ionization of the 3a1 orbital of water by electron impact. The cross sections are determined for symmetric coplanar and non-coplanar geometrical arrangements. The obtained results show reasonable agreement with experimental data for both geometries. Contribution to the Topical Issue "Elementary Processes with Atoms and Molecules in Isolated and Aggregated States", edited by Friedrich Aumayr, Bratislav Marinkovic, Stefan Matejcik, John Tanis and Kurt H. Becker.

Using a scale analysis approach, we model phase change (melting) for pure materials which generate internal heat for small Stefan numbers (approximately one). The analysis considers conduction in the solid phase and natural convection, driven by internal heat generation, in the liquid regime. The model is applied for a constant surface temperature boundary condition where the melting temperature is greater than the surface temperature in a cylindrical geometry. We show the time scales in which conduction and convection heat transfer dominate.

This is a report on the joint work with François Gieres, Stefan Hohenegger, Olivier Piguet and Manfred Schweda. We consider a non-commutative U(1) gauge theory with an extension which was originally proposed by A. A. Slavnov [3, 4] in order to get rid of UV/IR mixing problems. Here we show, that the improved IR behaviour of this model is mainly due to the appearence of a linear vector supersymmetry.

The optimal control of solidification in metal casting is considered. The underlying mathematical model is based on a three-dimensional two-phase initial-boundary value problem of the Stefan type. The study is focused on choosing a cost functional in the optimal control of solidification and choosing a difference scheme for solving the direct problem. The results of the study are described and analyzed.

We identify optimal measurement strategies for phase estimation in different scenarios in which the interferometer acts on two-mode symmetric states. For pure states of a single qubit, we show that optimal measurements form a broad set parametrized with a continuous variable. When the state is mixed, this set reduces to merely two possible measurements. For two-qubit symmetric Werner state, we find the optimal measurement and show that estimation from the population imbalance is optimal only if the state is pure. We also determine the optimal measurements for a wide class of symmetric N-qubit Werner-like states. Finally, for a pure symmetric state of N qubits, we find under which conditions the estimation from the full N-body correlation and from the population imbalance is optimal.

By Nathalie Walker, Guest Writer Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series describing one student’s perspective on her experiences as a Werner H. Kirsten student intern. “The future depends on what you do today.” Those wise words were spoken by Mahatma Gandhi. Before I started my Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) student internship, I did not know what I know now. I only knew what each of Gandhi’s words meant individually. I now understand the full meaning of the phrase. To me, Gandhi’s words mean that nothing in life is handed to you. You have to work hard today to get the results you want tomorrow.

Mullerian malformations result from defective fusion of the Mullerian ducts during development of the female reproductive system and have an incidence of 2-3%. The American Fertility Society classification of Mullerian anomalies is the most commonly utilized standardized classification. The least common form of these malformations is Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome characterized by obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal anomaly (OHVIRA). This syndrome has been described with case reports since 1922. Early diagnosis and surgery that include drainage of fluid and resection of the vaginal septum is necessary for OHVIRA to prevent late complications (i.e. pyocolpos, chronic cryptomenorrhea). Here in we report a case of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome that hymen has been preserved during the operation of non-fenestrated transverse vaginal septum resection with hysteroscopy. PMID:26676254

Mullerian malformations result from defective fusion of the Mullerian ducts during development of the female reproductive system and have an incidence of 2-3%. The American Fertility Society classification of Mullerian anomalies is the most commonly utilized standardized classification. The least common form of these malformations is Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome characterized by obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal anomaly (OHVIRA). This syndrome has been described with case reports since 1922. Early diagnosis and surgery that include drainage of fluid and resection of the vaginal septum is necessary for OHVIRA to prevent late complications (i.e. pyocolpos, chronic cryptomenorrhea). Here in we report a case of Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome that hymen has been preserved during the operation of non-fenestrated transverse vaginal septum resection with hysteroscopy. PMID:26676254

This report covers the activity of the traveler participating in a workshop entitled The 13th Werner Brandt Workshop on the Interaction of Charged Particles with Solids and conducting collaborative research with two physicists at Tokyo University. The Werner Brandt Workshops are organized by members of the traveler's group, led by Dr. R. H. Ritchie, with advice from an international committee. The traveler participated in planning for the next in the series of workshops, which will be held in or near the traveler's home base. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in early 1992. He interacted with scientists from Japan, Spain, USSR, Israel, and other countries, initiated plans for a new collaboration with a Japanese scientist, and renewed existing collaborations, At Tokyo University, the traveler performed collaborative research with Professors Y. Yamazaki and K. Komaki on two topics of importance to the traveler's programs with the Department of Energy (DOE).

Modeling of ionic diffusion in warm dense plasma mixtures has been of longstanding interest in astrophysics and in Inertial Confinement Fusion. In this work we employ classical Molecular Dynamics (MD) to calculate diffusion coefficients in mixed plasmas. In the MD study we make use of the Yukawa potential as an effective ion-ion interaction potential that accounts for the screening effects of the electrons. We focus in binary asymmetric mixtures between Deuterium and Argon at Temperatures from 10-100eV and ion densities from 1023-1025 ion/cc. In uniform mixed systems we use Green-Kubo techniques to calculate self-diffusivities and Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities over a range of conditions. The new results from this study show that a simple linear relations between Maxwell-Stefan diffusivity and self-diffusivities is not always valid. The interdiffusivity that enters in Fickian equation can be related to the Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities through the thermodynamic factor. The latter requires knowledge of the equation of state of the mixture. We compare these results with classical kinetic theories that assume binary collisions. To test these Green-Kubo approaches and to estimate the activity contribution we have also employed large-scale non-equilibrium, non-uniform mixed, MD. This work was performed under the auspices of the US Dept. of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

The accuracy and complexity of solving multicomponent gaseous diffusion using the detailed multicomponent equations, the Stefan-Maxwell equations, and two commonly used approximate equations have been examined in a two part study. Part I examined the equations in a basic study with specified inputs in which the results are applicable for many applications. Part II addressed the application of the equations in the Langley Aerothermodynamic Upwind Relaxation Algorithm (LAURA) computational code for high-speed entries in Earth's atmosphere. The results showed that the presented iterative scheme for solving the Stefan-Maxwell equations is an accurate and effective method as compared with solutions of the detailed equations. In general, good accuracy with the approximate equations cannot be guaranteed for a species or all species in a multi-component mixture. 'Corrected' forms of the approximate equations that ensured the diffusion mass fluxes sum to zero, as required, were more accurate than the uncorrected forms. Good accuracy, as compared with the Stefan- Maxwell results, were obtained with the 'corrected' approximate equations in defining the heating rates for the three Earth entries considered in Part II.

I propose a novel mechanism for the brain cancer tissue treatment: nonlinear interaction of ultrashort pulses of beat-photon, (ω1 -- ω2) , or double-photon, (ω1 +ω2) , beams with the cancer tissue. The multiphoton scattering is described via photon diffusion equation. The open-scull cerebral tissue can be irradiated with the beat-modulated photon pulses with the laser irradiances in the range of a few mW/cm2 , and repetition rate of a few 100s Hz generated in the beat-wave driven free electron laser. V. Stefan, B. I. Cohen, and C. Joshi, Nonlinear Mixing of Electromagnetic Waves in PlasmasScience 27 January 1989: V. Alexander Stefan, Genomic Medical Physics: A New Physics in the Making, (S-U-Press, 2008).} This highly accurate cancer tissue ablation removal may prove to be an efficient method for the treatment of brain cancer. Work supported in part by Nikola Tesla Laboratories (Stefan University), La Jolla, CA.

Understanding mass transport in liquids by mutual diffusion is an important topic for many applications in chemical engineering. The reason for this is that diffusion is often the rate limiting step in chemical reactors and separators. In multicomponent liquid mixtures, transport diffusion can be described by both generalized Fick's law and the Maxwell-Stefan theory. The Maxwell-Stefan and Fick approaches in an n-component system are related by the so-called thermodynamic factor [R. Taylor and H.A. Kooijman, Chem. Eng. Commun, 102, 87 (1991)]. As Fick diffusivities can be measured in experiments and Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities can be obtained from molecular simulations/theory, the thermodynamic factors bridge the gap between experiments and molecular simulations/theory. It is therefore desirable to be able to compute thermodynamic factors from molecular simulations. Unfortunately, presently used simulation techniques for computing thermodynamic factors are inefficient and often require numerical differentiation of simulation results. In this work, we propose a modified version of the Widom test-particle method to compute thermodynamic factors from a single simulation. This method is found to be more efficient than the conventional Widom test particle insertion method combined with numerical differentiation of simulation results. The approach is tested for binary systems consisting of Lennard-Jones particles. The thermodynamic factors computed from the simulation and from numerically differentiating the activity coefficients obtained from the conventional Widom test particle insertion method are in excellent agreement.

Mathematical model of a contact bouncing takes into account elastic-plastic and electrodynamic forces, phase transformations during interaction of electrical arc with the contact surface as a result of increasing temperature. It is based on the integro-differential equations for the contact motion and Stefan problem for the temperature field. These equations describe four consecutive stages of the contact vibration from the impact at contact closing up to opening after bouncing including effects of penetration and restitution. The new method for the solution of the Stefan problem is elaborated, which enables us to get the information about dynamics of zones of elasticity, plasticity and phase transformations during contact vibration. It is shown that the decrement of damping depends on the coefficient of plasticity and the moment of inertia only, while the frequency of vibration depends also on the hardness of contact, its temperature, properties of contact spring, and geometry of rotational mechanism. It is found also from the solution of Stefan problem that the relationship between dynamical zones of plasticity and melting explains the decrease of current density and contact welding. The results of calculations are compared with the experimental data.

Recently, I have proposed a novel heuristic method for the deconfinement of quarks.footnotetextM. Gell-Mann. The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex (New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1994) [cf. M. Gell-Mann, The Garden of Live Flowers in: V. Stefan (Editor), Physics and Society. Essays Honoring Victor Frederick Weisskopf (Springer, 1998), pp. 109-121]. It proceeds in two phases.footnotetextV. Alexander Stefan, On a Heuristic Point of View About Inertial Deconfinement of Quarks, American Physical Society, 2009 APS April Meeting, May 2-5, 2009, abstract #E1.038. Firstly, a frozen hydrogen pellet is inertially confined by the ultra-intense lasers up to a solid state density. Secondly, a solid state nano-pellet is ``punched'' by the photon beam created in the beat wave driven free electron laser (BW-FEL), leading to the ``rapture'' (in a ``karate chop'' model) of the ``MIT Bag''footnotetextJ. I. Friedman and H. Kendall, Viki, in: V. Stefan (Editor), Physics and Society. (Springer, 1998), pp. 103-108]. before the asymptotically free quarks move apart. Hereby, I propose TeV, a few 100s attosecond, photon beams in interaction with the nano-pellet. The threshold ``rapture force'' of the TeV attosecond photon is 10^7 N. )

The Building 549 auditorium is often packed with high school interns eager to hear a scientific lecture. On April 22, however, the room swelled with interns spanning a wider age range. At the 25th Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern Program (WHK SIP) Anniversary Symposium, incoming, current, and former interns gathered to celebrate the program, which has provided biomedical research experience for local high school seniors.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle shows that no one can specify the values of the non-commuting canonically conjugated variables simultaneously. However, the uncertainty relation is usually applied to two incompatible measurements. We present tighter bounds on both entropic uncertainty relation and information exclusion relation for multiple measurements in the presence of quantum memory. As applications, three incompatible measurements on Werner state and Horodecki’s bound entangled state are investigated in details.

The Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, now located in the town of Garching north of Munich in Germany, is one of the more than 70 autonomous research institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. It was founded in 1958 under the direction of Ludwig Biermann as part of the Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik, directed at that time by Werner Heisenberg. In 1979, when the headquarters of t...

In his book Niels Bohr's Times, the physicist Abraham Pais captures a paradox in his subject's legacy by quoting three conflicting assessments. Pais cites Max Born, of the first generation of quantum physics, and Werner Heisenberg, of the second, as saying that Bohr had a greater influence on physics and physicists than any other scientist. Yet Pais also reports a distinguished younger colleague asking with puzzlement and scepticism "What did Bohr really do?".

We give a tour of Munich and some outlying sites that focuses on the lives and work of the most prominent physicists who lived in the city, Count Rumford, Joseph Fraunhofer, Georg Simon Ohm, Max Planck, Ludwig Boltzmann, Albert Einstein, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Wilhelm Wien, Arnold Sommerfeld, Max von Laue, and Werner Heisenberg. We close with a self-guided tour that describes how to reach these sites in Munich.

In 1956, three men were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, in particular 'for their discoveries concerning heart catheterisation and pathological changes in the circulatory system'. Their names in alphabetical order: André F. Cournand, Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W. Richards. Forssmann's experiment dated from 1929, while Cournand and Richards started their work in 1941. The order in which they presented their Nobel lectures on 11 December 1956 was Forssmann, Richards, Cournand. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2 PMID:25696475

A development of quantum theory that was initiated in the 1920s by Werner Heisenberg (1901-76) and Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961). The theory drew on a proposal made in 1925 Prince Louis de Broglie (1892-1987), that particles have wavelike properties (the wave-particle duality) and that an electron, for example, could in some respects be regarded as a wave with a wavelength that depended on its mo...

Too often, students don't feel engaged in their research projects. The problem begins as early as the topic-creation stage, when students may choose from a list of teacher-selected topics that don't interest them or struggle to select a single fruitful topic on their own. Nanci Werner-Burke describes how two students in an English…

To mark the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Bruno Bloch's appointment to the Chair of Dermatology in Zurich, a commemorative lecture was established. The speaker paid tribute to his professional achievements and to the careers of some of his followers (Wilhelm Lutz, Basel; Marion B. Sulzberger, New York; Edwin Ramel, Lausanne; Hubert Jäger, Lausanne; Werner Jadassohn, Geneva; Guido Miescher, Zurich). PMID:8320121

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle shows that no one can specify the values of the non-commuting canonically conjugated variables simultaneously. However, the uncertainty relation is usually applied to two incompatible measurements. We present tighter bounds on both entropic uncertainty relation and information exclusion relation for multiple measurements in the presence of quantum memory. As applications, three incompatible measurements on Werner state and Horodecki's bound entangled state are investigated in details. PMID:26118488

At a key time in his scientific development, Pauli was undergoing analysis by Jung. What can we learn about Pauli's discoveries of the exclusion principle and the CPT theorem, as well as his thoughts on non-conservation of parity, and his quest with Heisenberg for a unified field theory of elementary particles from Jung?s analysis of his dreams? A very different Pauli emerges, one at odds with esteemed colleagues such as Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

WHAG-TV (Hagerstown, Md.) visited Fort Detrick to highlight the 2015 Spring Research Festival (SRF), sponsored by the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR). Visit the WHAG-TV website to see the video broadcast, which aired May 6. The video was produced by WHAG Reporter Mallory Sofastaii. The video featured Linganore High School senior Rebecca Matthews, a Werner H. Kirsten student intern in the Human Retrovirus Pathogenesis Section, Vaccine Branch, NCI Center for Cancer Research; Lanessa Hill, public affairs specialist,

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle shows that no one can specify the values of the non-commuting canonically conjugated variables simultaneously. However, the uncertainty relation is usually applied to two incompatible measurements. We present tighter bounds on both entropic uncertainty relation and information exclusion relation for multiple measurements in the presence of quantum memory. As applications, three incompatible measurements on Werner state and Horodecki’s bound entangled state are investigated in details. PMID:26118488

Quantum mechanics is interpreted, in the spirit of Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, as about physical objects in so far as these are revealed by and within the local, social, and historical process of measurement. An analysis of the hermeneutical aspect of quantum mechanical measurement reveals close analogues with the hermeneutical social/historical sciences. The hermeneutical analysis of science requires the move from the epistemological attitude to an ontological one.

Using a new geometrical approach introduced by Gibbons and Werner we study the deflection angle by Reissner-Nordström black holes in the background spacetimes with a global monopole and a cosmic string. By calculating the corresponding optical Gaussian curvature and applying the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to the optical metric we find the leading terms of the deflection angle in the weak limit approximation. We find that the deflection angle increases due to the presence of topological defects.

At a key time in his scientific development, Pauli was undergoing analysis by Jung. What can we learn about Pauli's discoveries of the exclusion principle and the CPT theorem, as well as his thoughts on non-conservation of parity, and his quest with Heisenberg for a unified field theory of elementary particles from Jung’s analysis of his dreams? A very different Pauli emerges, one at odds with esteemed colleagues such as Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

We show that the gravitational modification of the phase of a neutron beam [the Colella-Overhauser-Werner (COW) experiment] has a classical origin, being due to the time delay that classical particles experience in traversing a background gravitational field. Similarly, we show that classical light waves also undergo a phase shift in traversing a gravitational field. We show that the COW experiment respects the equivalence principle even in the presence of quantum mechanics. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer The Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP) has enrolled the largest class ever for the 2013–2014 academic year, with 66 students and 50 mentors. This enrollment reflects a 53 percent increase in students and a 56 percent increase in mentors, compared to 2012–2013 (43 students and 32 mentors), according to Julie Hartman, WHK SIP director.

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer Werner H. Kirstin (WHK) student intern Ben Freed was one of 40 finalists to compete in the Intel Science Talent Search (STS) in Washington, DC, in March. “It was seven intense days of interacting with amazing judges and incredibly smart and interesting students. We met President Obama, and then the MIT astronomy lab named minor planets after each of us,” Freed said of the competition.

By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer The competitors in the cellular and molecular biology category of the Frederick County Science and Engineering Fair on March 22–23 didn’t stand a chance against the Werner H. Kirsten student interns at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick. These interns swept the entire category, with Madelyne Xiao, a rising intern, winning first place; Maria Hamscher, second place; Ashley Babyak and Dahlia Kronfli tying for third place; and Maham Ahmed receiving an honorable mention.

Werner Heisenberg is an important historical subject within the physics community partly because his actions as a human being are discussed nearly as often as his work as a physicist. But does the scientific community establish it's historical ideas with the same methods and standards as it's scientific conclusions? I interviewed Heisenberg's son, Jochen Heisenberg, a professor of physics at UNH. Despite a great amount of literature on Werner Heisenberg, only one historian has interviewed Jochen about his father and few have interviewed Werner's wife. Nature is mysterious and unpredictable, but it doesn't lie or distort like humans, and we believe it can give ``honest'' results. But are we keeping the same standards with history that we do with science? Are we holding historians to these standards and if not, is it up to scientists to not only be keepers of scientific understanding, but historical understanding as well? Shouldn't we record history by using the scientific method, by weighing the best sources of data differently than the less reliable, and are we right to be as stubborn about changing our views on history as we are about changing our views on nature?

The aim of this research is to explore the influence of sensor characteristics and interactions with vegetation and terrain properties on the estimation of vegetation parameters from LiDAR waveforms. This is carried out using waveform simulations produced by the FLIGHT radiative transfer model which is based on Monte Carlo simulation of photon transport (North, 1996; North et al., 2010). The opportunities for vegetation analysis that are offered by LiDAR modelling are also demonstrated by other authors e.g. Sun and Ranson, 2000; Ni-Meister et al., 2001. Simulations from the FLIGHT model were driven using reflectance and transmittance properties collected from the Howland Research Forest, Maine, USA in 2003 together with a tree list for a 200m x 150m area. This was generated using field measurements of location, species and diameter at breast height. Tree height and crown dimensions of individual trees were calculated using relationships established with a competition index determined for this site. Waveforms obtained by the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) were used as validation of simulations. This provided a base from which factors such as slope, laser incidence angle and pulse width could be varied. This has enabled the effect of instrument design and laser interactions with different surface characteristics to be tested. As such, waveform simulation is relevant for the development of future satellite LiDAR sensors, such as NASA’s forthcoming DESDynI mission (NASA, 2010), which aim to improve capabilities of vegetation parameter estimation. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank scientists at the Biospheric Sciences Branch of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in particular to Jon Ranson and Bryan Blair. This work forms part of research funded by the NASA DESDynI project and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/F021437/1). REFERENCES NASA, 2010, DESDynI: Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice. http

The present work was developed in the frame of a collaboration between CNR/Istituto Ricerche Combustione, University of Parma and ENEA. It was aimed at exploiting and recovering the thermal energy from liquid effluents and solid wastes derived from typical Italian manufacturing of agro-industrial companies. This paper focuses on an organic sludge that is obtained as a residue during steam concentration of waste water from alcohol production in distilleries. This sludge has a very low calorific value and cannot be directly used in a combustion process. The first objective was to turn the sludge into a coal/waste/water mixture, easy to prepare and to burn on site in a bubbling fluidized combustor. To do so, some preliminary runs were carried out on a significant experimental scale by employing the 2100 kW{sub t} FBC-370 pre-pilot facility and by feeding underbed a South African coal/dry residue/water mixture with a maximum particle size of 1 mm. Very satisfactory values of co-combustion efficiency (i.e., larger than 98%), were attained as a function of the dispersing air velocity. It was proven that the mechanism of combustion passes through the formation of carbon-sand aggregates and tiny carbon deposits on bed sand particles. Another outcome was that pumping the mixture directly into the bed without any atomization is feasible and favorable from the point of view of co-combustion efficiency. Therefore, a second objective was to investigate aggregate formation as a result of mixture injection into the hot bed. This has been pursued through a review of the fundamental aspects underlying the behavior of a liquid issuing from an orifice. Two simple approaches, one based on Scheele and Meister`s (1968) results and the other one based on a balance of force moments, were followed. These two approaches provided two different equations to predict the diameter of a drop that detaches from the injection nozzle. Furthermore, aggregate formation was investigated through the set

The effect of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The Null-Space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21st century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows for the evaluation of intra-annual uncertainty due to soil properties and the inter-annual variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant intra-annual uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Intra-annual uncertainties in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume and time integrated Stefan number decreases significantly in the future climate, indicating that latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction in future climates. Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we show that the effect of calibration-constrained uncertainty in soil properties, although significant, is

The effect of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The Null-Space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21$^{st}$ century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows for the evaluation of intra-annual uncertainty due to soil properties and the inter-annual variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant intra-annual uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Intra-annual uncertainties in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume and time integrated Stefan number decreases significantly in the future climate, indicating that latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction in future climates. Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we show that the effect of calibration-constrained uncertainty in soil properties, although significant

The effect of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The Null-Space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21st century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows for the evaluation of intra-annual uncertainty due to soil properties and the inter-annual variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant intra-annual uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Intra-annual uncertainties in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume and time integrated Stefan number decreases significantly in the future climate, indicating that latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction in future climates. Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we show that the effect of calibration-constrained uncertainty in soil properties, although significant, is

Here, the effect of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The Null-Space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21more » $$^{st}$$ century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows for the evaluation of intra-annual uncertainty due to soil properties and the inter-annual variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant intra-annual uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Intra-annual uncertainties in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume and time integrated Stefan number decreases significantly in the future climate, indicating that latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction in future climates. Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we show that the effect of calibration-constrained uncertainty in soil properties

The effect of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The Null-Space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21st century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows formore » the evaluation of intra-annual uncertainty due to soil properties and the inter-annual variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant intra-annual uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Intra-annual uncertainties in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume and time integrated Stefan number decreases significantly in the future climate, indicating that latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction in future climates. Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we show that the effect of calibration-constrained uncertainty in soil properties, although

The problem of controlling the phase boundary evolution in the course of solidification of metals with different thermodynamic properties is studied. The underlying mathematical model of the process is based on a three-dimensional nonstationary two-phase initial-boundary value problem of the Stefan type. The control functions are determined by optimal control problems, which are solved numerically with the help of gradient optimization methods. The gradient of the cost function is exactly computed by applying the fast automatic differentiation technique. The research results are described and analyzed. Some of them are illustrated.

The radiative heating or cooling of a body placed in an environment, whose temperature is considered constant is described by Stefan's law. In this paper, an analysis is made of how a time-dependent environmental temperature influences the heating/cooling process. We compare experimental results for a resistor first heated by the Joule effect inside a glass vacuum tube and then cooled under two different conditions: in a bath at a constant temperature and in air. We also discuss a model that describes how the time-dependent tube temperature influences the radiative resistor cooling by identifying the properties of the environment that make the resistor cooling rate linear.

We study properties of the baryon number distribution in QGP phase. We first point out that a Gaussian type of the canonical partition function with regard to the baryon number means the Roberge-Weiss phase transition. The canonical partition function of QCD at high temperatures is studied both analytically and numerically. We find that the canonical partition function obtained in lattice QCD simulation agrees with that obtained for Stefan-Boltzmann limit for T higher than Tc, and is the Gaussian function of the baryon number.

Detailed models of UO2+x at very high temperatures incorporating the effects of non-congruent melting have been developed to support the design and analysis of experimental work related to nuclear safety. Models based on both the Stefan formulation and phase field approach are implemented using recently published material properties. Simulations compare well with laser flash experiments performed on UO2+x. This work has application in modelling centreline melting of defective fuel which may occur due to the reduced thermal conductivity and lower incipient melting temperature associated with fuel oxidation.

Transport phenomena in an ion-exchange membrane containing both H+ and K+ are described using multicomponent diffusion equations (Stefan-Maxwell). A model is developed for transport through a Nafion 112 membrane in a hydrogen-pump setup. The model results are analyzed to quantify the impact of cation contamination on cell potential. It is shown that limiting current densities can result due to a decrease in proton concentration caused by the build-up of contaminant ions. An average cation concentration of 30 to 40 percent is required for appreciable effects to be noticed under typical steady-state operating conditions.

In this Letter we propose the use of whispering gallery mode resonance tracking as a label-free optical means to monitor diffusion kinetics in glassy polymer microspheres. Approximate solutions to the governing diffusion equations are derived for the case of slow relaxation and small Stefan number. Transduction of physical changes in the polymer, including formation of a rubbery layer, swelling, and dissolution, into detectable resonance shifts are described using a perturbative approach. Concrete examples of poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene spheres in water are considered. PMID:25839311

The tackiness of various tablet coating solutions was determined using a parallel plate technique with a tensile testing machine in conjunction with an oscilloscope where the separation force was displayed as a function of time. Measurements were made at various rates of separation on liquid films of constant thickness. Results showed that the force required to split a liquid film increases with an increase in rate of separation, and that tackiness increases with an increase in viscosity. The relation between tack and viscosity was not linear, and a modified Stefan equation was proposed. PMID:7120095

The blackbody theory is revisited in the case of thermal electromagnetic fields inside uniaxial anisotropic media in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath. When these media are hyperbolic, we show that the spectral energy density of these fields radically differs from that predicted by Planck's blackbody theory and that the maximum of the spectral energy density determined by Wien's law is redshifted. Finally, we derive the Stefan-Boltzmann law for hyperbolic media which becomes a quadratic function of the heat bath temperature. PMID:26551116

In this article we propose an activity aimed at introductory students to help them understand the Stefan-Boltzmann and Wien's displacement laws. It only requires simple materials that are available at any school: an incandescent lamp, a variable dc energy supply, and a computer to run an interactive simulation of the blackbody spectrum. Essentially, the activity consists of calculating the filament's temperature for different values of electric power and comparing the color and brightness of the lamp's light, as seen by the eye, with the correspondent (simulated) black-body spectrum. Although the comparison is only qualitative, we find that the activity provides a tangible introduction to blackbody radiation.

A novel method for the possible prevention of epileptic seizures is proposed, based on the multi-ultraviolet-photon beam interaction with the epilepsy topion, (nonlinear coupling of an ultra high frequency mode to the brain beta phonons). It is hypothesized that epilepsy is a chaotic-dynamics phenomenon: small electrical changes in the epilepsy-topion lead, (within the 10s of milliseconds), to the onset of chaos, (seizure--excessive electrical discharge), and subsequent cascading into adjacent areas. The ultraviolet photons may control the imbalance of sodium and potassium ions and, consequently, may prove to be efficient in the prevention of epileptic seizures. Supported by Nikola Tesla Labs, Stefan University.

In recent years the Jožef Stefan Institute participated in numerous intercomparison exercises for determination of natural and man-made radionuclides. The reported values were mostly in good agreement with the resulting reference values. This paper describes an analysis of the measurement results obtained in intercomparison exercises for determination of actinides in the period from 2009 to 2011, organised by the National Physical Laboratory and the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz. The review covers neptunium, plutonium and americium radioisotopes over this period. PMID:23566808

Using a scale/analytical analysis approach, we model phase change (melting) for pure materials which generate constant internal heat generation for small Stefan numbers (approximately one). The analysis considers conduction in the solid phase and natural convection, driven by internal heat generation, in the liquid regime. The model is applied for a constant surface temperature boundary condition where the melting temperature is greater than the surface temperature in a cylindrical geometry. The analysis also consider constant heat flux (in a cylindrical geometry).We show the time scales in which conduction and convection heat transfer dominate.

The buoyancy effect of a growing isolated dendrite on the solidification process in the undercooling liquid material was investigated by developing an analytic solution to the growth/convection problem in powers of a buoyancy parameter G. The solution depends on the Prandtl number P and the Stefan number S (undercooling) for the local velocity and thermal fields and also the buoyant alteration of the interface shape. Results suggest that buoyancy effect for metals (low P) may be qualitatively different from that for organics (high P).

A novel method for the treatment of Parkinson's disease is proposed. Pluripotent stem cells are laser cultured, using ultrashort wavelength, (around 0.1 micron-ultraviolet radiation-with intensities of a few mW/cm2) , multiple laser beams.[2] The multiple-energy laser photons[3] interact with the neuron DNA molecules to be cloned. The laser created dopaminergic substantia nigra neurons can be, (theoretically), laser transplanted, (a higher focusing precision as compared to a syringe method), into the striatum or substantia nigra regions of the brain, or both. Supported by Nikola Tesla Labs, Stefan University.

A novel method for the treatment of the neurological diseases is proposed. The multiple-energy laser photons (the blue scanning photons and ultraviolet focusing photons) interact with the specific DNA molecules within the topion (such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's brain topion) via the matching of laser frequency with the oscillation eigen-frequency of a particular molecule within the DNA. In this way, the corrupt molecules (the structure of molecules) can be manipulated so as to treat (eliminate) the neurological disease. Supported by Nikola Tesla Labs, Stefan University.

The proton beam generation and focusing in fast ignition inertial confinement fusion is studied. The spatial and energy spread of the proton beam generated in a laser-solid interaction is increased due to the synergy of Weibel and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. The focal spot radius can reach 100 μm, which is nearly an order of magnitude larger than the optimal value. The energy spread decreases the beam deposition energy in the focal spot. Under these conditions, ignition of a precompressed DT fuel is achieved with the beam powers much higher than the values presently in consideration. Work supported in part by NIKOLA TESLA Laboratories (Stefan University), La Jolla, CA.

The fast ignition fusion pellet gain can be enhanced by a laser generated B-field shell. The B-field shell, (similar to Earth's B-field, but with the alternating B-poles), follows the pellet compression in a frozen-in B-field regime. A properly designed laser-pellet coupling can lead to the generation of a B-field shell, (up to 100 MG), which inhibits electron thermal transport and confines the alpha-particles. In principle, a pellet gain of few-100s can be achieved in this manner. Supported in part by Nikola Tesla Labs, Stefan University, 1010 Pearl, La Jolla, CA 92038-1007.

In cryosurgery operations, tumoural cells are killed by means of a freezing procedure realised with the insertion of cryoprobes in the diseased tissue. Cryosurgery planning aims at establishing the best values for operation parameters like number and position of the probes or temperature and duration of the freezing process. Here, we present an application of ant colony optimisation (ACO) to cryosurgery planning, whereby the ACO cost function is computed by numerically solving several direct Stefan problems in biological tissues. The method is validated in the case of a 2D phantom of a prostate cross section. PMID:22224977

In this Letter we propose the use of whispering gallery mode resonance tracking as a label-free optical means to monitor diffusion kinetics in glassy polymer microspheres. Approximate solutions to the governing diffusion equations are derived for the case of slow relaxation and small Stefan number. Transduction of physical changes in the polymer, including formation of a rubbery layer, swelling, and dissolution, into detectable resonance shifts are described using a perturbative approach. Concrete examples of poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene spheres in water are considered.

The fragmentation of a gas-phase tryptophan molecule by a low-energy (<70 eV) electron impact was studied both experimentally and theoretically. Various positively charged fragments were observed and analyzed. A special attention was paid to the energy characteristics of the ionic fragment yield. The geometrical parameters of the initial molecule rearrangement were also analyzed. The fragmentation observed was due to either a simple bond cleavage or more complex reactions involving molecular rearrangements. Contribution to the Topical Issue "Elementary Processes with Atoms and Molecules in Isolated and Aggregated States", edited by Friedrich Aumayr, Bratislav Marinkovic, Stefan Matejcik, John Tanis and Kurt H. Becker.

The elemental composition of iron gall inks in historical documents can be effectively studied using the non-destructive proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE) method. The in-air proton beam experimental set-up installed at the Microanalytical Centre of the Jožef Stefan Institute was used for this purpose. The aim of the present investigation was to model and evaluate the uncertainties in the analysis due to the incompletely known matrix composition and iron gall ink layer thickness. Estimation of these uncertainties helped in quantifying the accuracy of multi-elemental PIXE analysis of historical documents.

Irradiation of materials with energetic particles produces changes in the microstructure that affect mechanical properties. In previous work we studied the thermal aspects of the quenching of collision cascades that involve nanoscale phase transitions between the solid and the liquid states of the target. In this work we present a rigorous treatment of these phenomena, including a detailed description of the Stefan problem in three dimensions and diffusion in thermal gradients. This approach is oriented to give a quantitative description of the influence of the primary knock-on spectrum on the microstructure short after the quenching of the heat spike. 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

This is one of the few books on the subject of mathematical materials science. It discusses the dynamics of two-phase systems within the framework of modern continuum thermodynamics, stressing fundamentals. Two general theories are discussed: a mechanical theory that leads to a generalization of the classical curve-shortening equation and a theory of heat conduction that broadly generalizes the classical Stefan theory. This original survey includes simple solutions that demonstrate the instabilities inherent in two-phase problems. The free-boundary problems that form the basis of the subject should be of great interest to mathematicians and physical scientists.

The article depicts major concepts present in the contemporary historiography of medicine (positivistic and social-cultural trends) and some of the concepts of modern methodology of the history of science, reviewing the possibilities of its use in the analysis of the process of modernizing the European medicine that was implemented between the 16th and the 19th century. The author advocates the social-cultural trend that dominates the contemporary historiography of medicine. She discusses and analyzes the concepts developed by Ludwik Fleck, Samuel Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Kurt Godl, Stefan Amsterdamski in respect of their sue to a historian of modern medicine. PMID:11625427

A Slovenian laboratory from the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) and a Romanian laboratory from the National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies (ICIT) performed bilateral intercomparisons of tritium determination in environmental samples. On the basis of the results, the measurement and analysis methods were compared. Comparability and traceability were confirmed with the results from international radioactivity proficiency test exercises organized by IAEA and NPL where both laboratories participated. New knowledge gained leads to harmonized, precise and traceable results of low level tritium environmental samples measurements. PMID:24332881

Seeing is believing. So goes the old adage and seen evidence is undoubtedly satisfying because it can be interpreted easily, though not always correctly. For centuries, humans have developed such instruments as telescopes that observe the heavens and microscopes that reveal bacteria and viruses. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner for their foundational work on superresolution fluorescence microscopy in which they overcame the Abbe diffraction limit for the resolving power of conventional light microscopes. (See Physics Today, December 2014, page 18.) That breakthrough enabled discoveries in biological research and testifies to the importance of modern microscopy.

Seeing is believing. So goes the old adage and seen evidence is undoubtedly satisfying because it can be interpreted easily, though not always correctly. For centuries, humans have developed such instruments as telescopes that observe the heavens and microscopes that reveal bacteria and viruses. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner for their foundational work on superresolution fluorescence microscopy in which they overcame the Abbe diffraction limit for the resolving power of conventional light microscopes. (See Physics Today, December 2014, page 18.) That breakthrough enabled discoveries in biological research and testifiesmore » to the importance of modern microscopy.« less

An asymptotic limit of a class of Cahn-Hilliard systems is investigated to obtain a general nonlinear diffusion equation. The target diffusion equation may reproduce a number of well-known model equations: Stefan problem, porous media equation, Hele-Shaw profile, nonlinear diffusion of singular logarithmic type, nonlinear diffusion of Penrose-Fife type, fast diffusion equation and so on. Namely, by setting the suitable potential of the Cahn-Hilliard systems, all these problems can be obtained as limits of the Cahn-Hilliard related problems. Convergence results and error estimates are proved.

This paper describes the water vapor desorption characteristics of honeycomb shape type sorbent element containing new organic sorbent of the bridged complex of sodium polyacrylate. The transient experiments in which the dry air was passed into the honeycomb type sorbent element sorbed water vapor were carried out under various conditions of air velocity, temperature, relative humidity and honeycomb length. The obtained data for desorption process were compared with those for sorption process. Finally, Sherwood number of mass transfer of the organic sorbent for desorption process was derived in terms of Reynolds number, modified Stefan number and non-dimensional honeycomb length.

V505 Ser (GSC 02038-00293) is a short-period eclipsing RS CVn system which was discovered by Bernhard and Frank (2006). It has been the subject of several recent studies which have established physical parameters and distribution of spots (cf. eg. Korhonen et al., 2010; Dal et al., 2012). The present paper gives an overview over recent results from the literature and presents new photometry of V505 Ser which gives further evidence to the existence of a 6-year spot cycle. Klaus Bernhard, Peter Frank and Stefan Huemmerich are member of the BAV.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of structural control using tuned mass damper (TMD) for suppressing excessive traffic induced vibration of high performance steel bridge. The study considered 1-span steel plate girder bridge and bridge-vehicle interaction using HS-24 truck model. A numerical model of steel plate girder, traffic load, and TMD is constructed and time history analysis is performed using commercial structural analysis program ABAQUS 6.10. Results from analyses show that high performance steel bridge has dynamic serviceability problem, compared to relatively low performance steel bridge. Therefore, the structural control using TMD is implemented in order to alleviate dynamic serviceability problems. TMD is applied to the bridge with high performance steel and then vertical vibration due to dynamic behavior is assessed again. In consequent, by using TMD, it is confirmed that the residual amplitude is appreciably reduced by 85% in steady-state vibration. Moreover, vibration serviceability assessment using 'Reiher-Meister Curve' is also remarkably improved. As a result, this paper provides the guideline for economical design of I-girder using high performance steel and evaluates the effectiveness of structural control using TMD, simultaneously.

This article describes a new diatom genus Moreneis from the Yellow Sea sand flats on the west coast of Korea. The new genus is characterized by a unique combination of morphological characteristics, including the shape of the plastids, which have not been previously observed in diatoms. The valve morphology resembles other genera belonging to Lyrellaceae, within which we place this genus. In terms of areolae structure, Moreneis resembles Petroneis and Placoneis; however, it differs from both genera with respect to the raphe system and plastid shape. Cells of Moreneis spp. have a single large plastid appressed to the girdle of the secondary side of the valve, with two lobes extended toward the primary side of the valve. Furthermore, the unique feature of Moreneis frustules is the raphe, which has both external central and apical endings bent in opposite directions. We differentiated four taxa, which we describe as new for science. However, based on our findings, several established species from Navicula should also be formally transferred to Moreneis, including N. alpha Cleve, N. besarensis Giffen, N. epsilon Cleve, N. menaiana Hendey, N. polae Heiden, and N. quadri-undulata F. Meister. Analysis of published data revealed that species belonging to Moreneis are numerous in tropical marine littoral waters, and in moderate climate zones, especially in the western Pacific, with only a few species occurring in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. PMID:27009663

The critical finding of our work showed that the major role of gamma-glutamyl transferase is to hydrolyze GSH and related gamma-glutamyl peptides to form free amino acids and cysteine-S-conjugates on the apical membranes of cells of various tissues and basolateral membranes of the kidney and that the resulting metabolites are transported into cells to synthesize GSH and mercapturic acids. We also showed that GSH and its S-conjugates of xenobiotics are actively secreted from cells into the circulation and/or lumenal space of the liver. The excretory transport and extracellular hydrolysis of GSH and its S-conjugates of various metabolites by gamma-glutamyl transferase and related peptidases followed by absorption of the hydrolyzed amino acids to synthesize GSH forms intra-organ and inter-organ cycles for GSH metabolism in the liver, kidney, pancreas, small intestine and other tissues that have gamma-glutamyl transferase. The series of our experiments with Helmut showed that gamma-glutamyl cycle proposed by Alton Meister does not function as the putative amino acid transporter but plays critical role in the regulation of redox metabolism of toxic free radicals and xenobiotics. PMID:27095217

A well-known result due to Hill provides an exact expression for the bulk modulus of any multicomponent elastic composite whenever the constituents are isotropic and the shear modulus is uniform throughout. Although no precise analog of Hill's result is available for the opposite case of uniform bulk modulus and varying shear modulus, it is shown here that some similar statements can be made for shear behavior of random polycrystals composed of laminates of isotropic materials. In particular, the Hashin-Shtrikman-type bounds of Peselnick, Meister, and Watt for random polycrystals composed of hexagonal (transversely isotropic) grains are applied to the problem of polycrystals of laminates. An exact product formula relating the Reuss estimate of bulk modulus and an effective shear modulus (of laminated grains composing the system) to products of the eigenvalues for quasi-compressional and quasi-uniaxial shear eigenvectors also plays an important role in the analysis of the overall shear behavior of the random polycrystal. When the bulk modulus is uniform in such a system, the equations are shown to reduce to a simple form that depends prominently on the uniaxial shear eigenvalue - as expected from physical arguments concerning the importance of uniaxial shear in these systems. One application of the analytical results presented here is for benchmarking numerical procedures used for estimating elastic behavior of complex composites.

In this study we used a coupled hydrophysical-biogeochemical O-N-S-P-Mn-Fe- model based on ROLM (Yakushev et al., 2007) and GOTM (Burchard et al., 2006). Processes of organic matter (OM) formation and decay, the reduction and oxidation of species of nitrogen, sulphur, manganese, iron, as well as transformation of phosphorus species are parameterized. The model considered phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacteria. The model allowed to simulate the main features of the vertically balanced biogeochemical structure of the redox interfaces (i.e observed in the Black Sea, Gotland Deep, Oslo Fjord). Numerical experiments allowed to demonstrate how the changes in vertical mixing (from Kz=10-6 m2s-1 to Kz=10-4 m2s-1) affect the distributions of the considered parameters and the rates of their transformation. The received estimates allowed to analyze the influence of the water column redox interfaces on the fluxes of nutrients, in particular phosphate, in different conditions. Burchard, H., Bolding, K., Kuehn, W., Meister, A., Neumann, T., Umlauf, L. 2006. Description of a flexible and extendable physical-biogeochemical model system for the water column. J.of Mar.Sys., 61: 180-211. Yakushev E.V., Pollehne F., Jost G. et al. 2007. Analysis of the water column oxic/anoxic interface in the Black and Baltic seas with a Redox-Layer Model. Mar. Chem., 107: 388-410.

Extremely sandy soils and poorly distributed high annual rainfall in the state of Florida contribute to significant leaching losses of nutrients from routine fertilization practices. A leaching column experiment was conducted to evaluate the leaching losses of nutrients when using currently available N, P, K blend fertilizers for young citrus tree fertilization. Fertilizer blends included NH4NO3, Ca(NO3)2, IBDU, IBDU plus Escote, Nutralene, Osmocote, and Meister. Following leaching of 1000 ml of water through soil columns, which simulates leaching conditions with 26 cm of rainfall, the amount of NO3 and NH4 recovered in the leachate from soil columns amended with an NH4NO3 blend accounted for 37% and 88% of the respective nutrients contained in the quantity of blend per column. The corresponding values for soil columns amended with a Ca(NO3)2 blend were 48% and 100%. Leraching losses of both NO3 (<3%) and NH4 (<4%) were drastically decreased when using controlled-release fertilizers. The recoveries of P and K in 1000 ml of leachate were 1.3% and 8%, respectively, of the nutrients added as Osmocote, which contained coated P and K sources. In the case of the rest of fertilizer blends, the recoveries of P and K in 1000 ml of leachate were as high as 52%-100% and 28%-100%, respectively. Therefore, controlled-release technology offers an important capability for minimizing leaching losses of nutrients.

In this dissertation we study the role of the F spin-orbit excited state (F*) in the F + H2 and F + HD reactions using quantum mechanical calculations. The calculations involve multiple potential energy surfaces (the Alexander-Stark-Werner, or ASW, PESs), and include an accurate treatment of the couplings (non-adiabatic, spin-orbit, and Coriolis) among all three electronic states. For the F + H2 reaction, we calculate the center-of-mass differential cross sections and laboratory-frame angular distributions at the four different combinations of collision energies and hydrogen isotopomer investigated in the experiments of Neumark et al. [J. Chem. Phys., 82, 3045 (1985)]. Comparisons with the calculations on the Stark-Werner (SW) and Hartke-Stark-Werner (HSW) PESs, which are limited to the lowest electronically adiabatic state, show that non-adiabatic couplings greatly reduce backward scattering. Surprisingly, we find the shapes of both the CM DCSs and LAB ADs are insensitive to the fraction of F* presented in the F beam. For the F + HD reaction, we calculate the excitation functions and product translational energy distribution functions to study the reactivity of F*. Comparisons with the experiment by Liu and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys., 113, 3633 (2000)] confirm the relatively low reactivity of spin-orbit excited state (F*) atoms. Excellent agreement with the experiment is obtained under the assumption that the F*:F concentration ratio equals 0.16:0.84 in the molecular beam, which corresponds to a thermal equilibrium of the two spin-orbit states at the experimental temperature (600K). From the accurate calculation of the F* reactivity and its relatively small contribution to the overall reactivity of the reaction, we attribute discrepancies between calculation and experiment to an inadequacy in the simulation of the reactivity of the F ground state, likely a result of the residual errors in the ground electronic potential energy surface.

Reconstructions of the late-Holocene climate rely heavily upon proxies that are assumed to be accurately dated by layer counting. All of these proxies, such as measurements of tree rings, ice cores, and varved lake sediments do carry some inherent dating uncertainty that is not always fully accounted for. Considerable advances could be achieved if time uncertainties were recognized and correctly modeled, also for proxies commonly treated as free of age model errors. Current approaches for accounting for time uncertainty are generally limited to repeating the reconstruction using each one of an ensemble of age models, thereby inflating the final estimated uncertainty - in effect, each possible age model is given equal weighting. Uncertainties can be reduced by exploiting the inferred space-time covariance structure of the climate to re-weight the possible age models. Werner and Tingley (2015) demonstrated how Bayesian hierarchical climate reconstruction models can be augmented to account for time-uncertain proxies. In their method, probabilities associated with the age models are formally updated within the Bayesian framework, thereby reducing uncertainties. Numerical experiments (Werner and Tingley 2015) show that updating the age model probabilities decreases uncertainty in the resulting reconstructions, as compared with the current de facto standard of sampling over all age models, provided there is sufficient information from other data sources in the spatial region of the time-uncertain proxy. We show how this novel method can be applied to high resolution, sub-annually sampled lacustrine sediment records to constrain their respective age depth models. The results help to quantify the signal content and extract the regionally representative signal. The single time series can then be used as the basis for a reconstruction of glacial activity. van der Bilt et al. in prep. Werner, J.P. and Tingley, M.P. Clim. Past (2015)

Supermassive black holes (BHs) reside in the center of most local galaxies, but they also power active galactic nuclei and quasars, detected up to z = 7. These quasars put constraints on early BH growth and the mass of BH seeds. The scenario of "direct collapse" is appealing as it leads to the formation of large mass BH seeds, 10^4-10^6 {M_{⊙}}, which eases explaining how quasars at z = 6 - 7 are powered by BHs with masses >109 M⊙. Direct collapse, however, appears to be rare, as the conditions required by the scenario are that gas is metal-free, the presence of a strong photo-dissociating Lyman-Werner flux, and large inflows of gas at the center of the halo, sustained for 10 - 100 Myr. We performed several cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that cover a large range of box sizes and resolutions, thus allowing us to understand the impact of several physical processes on the distribution of direct collapse BHs. We identify halos where direct collapse can happen, and derive the number density of BHs. We also investigate the discrepancies between hydrodynamical simulations, direct or post-processed, and semi-analytical studies. Under optimistic assumptions, we find that for direct collapse to account for BHs in normal galaxies, the critical Lyman-Werner flux required for direct collapse must be about two orders of magnitude lower than predicted by 3D simulations that include detailed chemical models. However, when supernova feedback is relatively weak, enough direct collapse BHs to explain z = 6 - 7 quasars can be obtained for Lyman-Werner fluxes about one order of magnitude lower than found in 3D simulations.

Early human mummies examined recently by computed tomography demonstrated a high prevalence of vascular calcification, a pathognomonic sign of atherosclerosis, which was correlated with estimated age at death. Early populations had little exposure to modern-day metabolic risk factors: these observations thus suggest that humans have an inherent age-dependent predisposition to atherosclerosis. Premature aging syndromes are extremely rare genetic disorders that exhibit clinical phenotypes resembling accelerated aging, including severe atherosclerosis, but those phenotypes are usually segmental. Controversy persists, therefore, regarding the extent to which the molecular mechanisms underlying premature aging syndromes overlap with those of physiological aging. Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) and Werner syndrome are well-characterized premature aging syndromes. HGPS is caused by gain-of-function mutations in the LMNA gene, which result in the accumulation of a mutant nuclear protein, called "progerin," at the nuclear rim. In contrast, loss-of-function mutations in Werner syndrome ATP-dependent helicase (WRN) lead to Werner syndrome. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which can differentiate into vascular cells to maintain vascular homeostasis in response to injury, are severely affected in these syndromes. Mechanistically, either aberrant expression of progerin or loss of WRN protein in MSCs alters heterochromatin structure, resulting in premature senescence and exhaustion of functional MSCs in premature aging syndromes. Surprisingly, vascular cells and MSCs in elderly healthy individuals have shown progerin expression and decreased expression levels of WRN, respectively. Studying these rare genetic disorders could thus provide valuable insights into age-related vascular diseases that occur in the general population. PMID:26948039

By Nathalie Walker, Guest Writer, and Carolynne Keenan, Contributing Writer On July 31, NCI at Frederick hosted Student Poster Day, an annual event in which student interns can showcase the work they do in their various positions in NCI at Frederick labs and offices. Participating students are interns in the Student Internship Program, a program designed for undergraduate and graduate students during their summer breaks, as well as interns in the Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP), a program for high school seniors. All the students have an opportunity to present their scientific posters.

Several families of states such as Werner states, Bell-diagonal states, and Dicke states are useful in understanding multipartite entanglement. Here we present a (2{sup N+1}-1)-parameter family of N-qubit ''X states'' that embraces all those families, generalizing previously defined states for two qubits. We also present the algebra of the operators that characterize the states and an iterative construction for this algebra, a subalgebra of su(2{sup N}). We show how a variety of entanglement witnesses can detect entanglement in such states. Connections are also made to structures in projective geometry.

Necessary conditions for separability are most easily expressed in the computational basis, while sufficient conditions are most conveniently expressed in the spin basis. We use the Hadamard matrix to define the relationship between these two bases and to emphasize its interpretation as a Fourier transform. We then prove a general sufficient condition for complete separability in terms of the spin coefficients and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the complete separability of a class of generalized Werner densities. As a further application of the theory, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for full separability for a particular set of n-qubit states whose densities all satisfy the Peres condition.

We give the explicit expressions of the pairwise quantum correlations present in superpositions of multipartite coherent states. A special attention is devoted to the evaluation of the geometric quantum discord. The dynamics of quantum correlations under a dephasing channel is analyzed. A comparison of geometric measure of quantum discord with that of concurrence shows that quantum discord in multipartite coherent states is more resilient to dissipative environments than is quantum entanglement. To illustrate our results, we consider some special superpositions of Weyl-Heisenberg, SU(2) and SU(1,1) coherent states which interpolate between Werner and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states.

The names of his students read like a Who's Who of the pioneers in modern physics Peter Debye, Peter Paul Ewald, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Hans A. Bethe - to name only the most prominent. In retrospect, the success of Sommerfeld's school of modern theoretical physics tends to overshadow its less glorious beginnings. A century ago, theoretical physics was not yet considered as a distinct discipline. In this article I emphasize more the haphazard beginnings than the later achievements of Sommerfeld's school, which mirrored the state of theoretical physics before it became an independent discipline.

This paper investigates the entanglement dynamics of an anisotropic two-qubit Heisenberg spin chain in the presence of decoherence at finite temperature. The time evolution of the concurrence is studied for different initial Werner states. The influences of initial purity, finite temperature, spontaneous decay and Hamiltonian on the entanglement evolution are analyzed in detail. Our calculations show that the finite temperature restricts the evolution of the entanglement all the time when the Hamiltonian improves it and the spontaneous decay to the reservoirs can produce quantum entanglement with the anisotropy of spin-spin interaction. Finally, the steady-state concurrence which may remain non-zero for low temperature is also given.

In this paper, we study the entanglement dynamics of two-spin Heisenberg XYZ model with the Dzialoshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. The system is initially prepared in the Werner state. The effects of purity of the initial state and DM coupling parameter on the evolution of entanglement are investigated. The necessary and sufficient condition for the appearance of the entanglement sudden death (ESD) phenomenon has been deduced. The result shows that the ESD always occurs if the initial state is sufficiently impure for the given coupling parameter or the DM interaction is sufficiently strong for the given initial state. Moreover, the critical values of them are calculated.

Using the weak measurement (WM) and quantum measurement reversal (QMR) approach, robust state transfer and entanglement distribution can be realized in the spin-(1)/(2) Heisenberg chain. We find that the ultrahigh fidelity and long distance of quantum state transfer with certain success probability can be obtained using proper WM and QMR, i.e., the average fidelity of a general pure state from 80% to almost 100%, which is almost size independent. We also find that the distance and quality of entanglement distribution for the Bell state and the general Werner mixed state can be obviously improved by the WM and QMR approach.

Assuming a two-qubit system in Werner state which evolves in Heisenberg XY model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction under the effect of different environments. We evaluate and compare quantum entanglement, quantum and classical correlation measures. It is shown that in the absence of decoherence effects, there is a critical value of DM interaction for which entanglement may vanish while quantum and classical correlations do not. In the presence of environment the behavior of correlations depends on the kind of system-environment interaction. Correlations can be sustained by manipulating Hamiltonian anisotropic-parameter in a dissipative environment. Quantum and classical correlations are more stable than entanglement generally.

We present the first detection of O VII lambda 1522 emission or absorption from archival IUE spectra in 14 planetary nebula nuclei and three PG 1159-type stars. The n = 5 approaching 6 transition of O VII was determined by Kruk & Werner and observed by them in the spectrum of the very hot PG 1159-type star H1504+65 from data obtained with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT). Emission-line fluxes or absorption equivalent widths as well as radial velocities for the program stars are presented. The precise rest wavelength for the 5 approaching 6 transition requires further investigation.

Pure curiosity has been the driving force behind many groundbreaking experiments in physics. This is no better illustrated than in quantum mechanics, initially the physics of the extremely small. Since its beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s, researchers have wanted to observe the counterintuitive properties of quantum mechanics directly in the laboratory. However, because experimental technology was not sufficiently developed at the time, people like Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger relied instead on "gedankenexperiments" (thought experiments) to investigate the quantum physics of individual particles, mainly electrons and photons.

Michelle Marcelino developed a strong interest in science as a child. The former Werner H. Kirsten student intern’s father was a physicist and often discussed with his daughters how the world works in terms of science. “I think my father instilled it in me from a very young age,” Marcelino said. “I remember being in elementary school and my father telling us colors are just wavelengths of light perceived by your eye. That’s my dad, explaining that concept in detail to a child.”

They came for a science lesson. They left with more. The new Werner H. Kirsten student interns filed into the auditorium in Building 549 to expand their knowledge of fundamental laboratory practices, as part of the Science Skills Boot Camp. A panel of presenters instructed the attendees on skills such as reading scientific papers effectively, practicing proper research ethics, and conducting professional presentations. Scientific Program Manager Ulrike Klenke, Ph.D., NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education, started the June event by welcoming her audience and encouraging the interns to break away from their familiar groups of classmates and to socialize with others from different schools and counties.

The nuclear lamina, a protein network located under the nuclear membrane, has during the past decade found increasing interest due to its significant involvement in a range of genetic diseases, including the segmental premature aging syndromes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, restrictive dermopathy, and atypical Werner syndrome. In this review we examine these diseases, some caused by mutations in the LMNA gene, and their skin disease features. Advances within this area might also provide novel insights into the biology of skin aging, as recent data suggest that low levels of progerin are expressed in unaffected individuals and these levels increase with aging. PMID:26290387

For the first time we define a so-called Ket-Bra Entangled State (KBES) for two-qubits coupled with reservoirs by introduce an extra fictitious mode vector, and convert the corresponding master equation into Schrödinger-like equation by virtue of this state. Via this approach we concisely obtain the dynamic evolution of two uncoupled qubits each immersed in local thermal noise. Based on this, the decoherence evolution for the extended Werner-like states is derived and how purity and temperature influence the concurrence is analyzed. This KBES method may also be applied to tackling master equations of limited atomic level systems.

In this paper, we study comparatively the behaviors of Wigner function and quantum correlations for two quasi-Werner states formed with two general bipartite superposed coherent states. We show that the Wigner function can be used to detect and quantify the quantum correlations. However, we show that it is in fact not sensitive to all kinds of quantum correlations but only to entanglement. Then, we analyze the measure of non-classicality of quantum states based on the volume occupied by the negative part of the Wigner function.

We classify, up to local unitary equivalence, local unitary stabilizer Lie algebras for symmetric mixed states of n qubits into six classes. These include the stabilizer types of the Werner states, the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state and its generalizations, and Dicke states. For all but the zero algebra, we classify entanglement types (local unitary equivalence classes) of symmetric mixed states that have those stabilizers. We make use of the identification of symmetric density matrices with polynomials in three variables with real coefficients and apply the representation theory of SO(3) on this space of polynomials.

We investigate an imbalance between the sensitivity of the common state measures - fidelity, trace distance, concurrence, tangle, von Neumann entropy, and linear entropy - when acted on by a depolarizing channel. Further, in this context we explore two classes of two-qubit entangled mixed states. Specifically, we illustrate a sensitivity imbalance between three of these measures for depolarized (i.e., Werner-state-like) nonmaximally entangled and maximally entangled mixed states, noting that the size of the imbalance depends on the state's tangle and linear entropy.

We propose a global measure for quantum correlations in multipartite systems, which is obtained by suitably recasting the quantum discord in terms of relative entropy and local von Neumann measurements. The measure is symmetric with respect to subsystem exchange and is shown to be nonnegative for an arbitrary state. As an illustration, we consider tripartite correlations in the Werner-GHZ (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger) state and multipartite correlations at quantum criticality. In particular, in contrast with the pairwise quantum discord, we show that the global quantum discord is able to characterize the infinite-order quantum phase transition in the Ashkin-Teller spin chain.

By Nathalie Walker, Guest Writer, and Carolynne Keenan, Contributing Writer On July 31, NCI at Frederick hosted Student Poster Day, an annual event in which student interns can showcase the work they do in their various positions in NCI at Frederick labs and offices. Participating students are interns in the Student Internship Program, a program designed for undergraduate and graduate students during their summer breaks, as well as interns in the Werner H. Kirsten Student Internship Program (WHK SIP), a program for high school seniors. All the students have an opportunity to present their scientific posters.

Most employees of NCI at Frederick have heard of the Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern Program (WHK SIP). The reason is simple—it has been wildly successful. And on Friday, April 22, the program will celebrate 25 years of mentoring and learning at the WHK SIP 25th Anniversary Symposium and Awards Ceremony. During the morning session, several former interns will talk about the impact that the WHK program has had on their lives. The afternoon session will begin with a panel of current and former mentors who will answer questions from students interested in the program and staff members interested in becoming mentors. Read more...

Students Share Their Research at Student Poster Day By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer More than 50 Werner H. Kirsten student interns and college interns presented their research at Summer Student Poster Day on August 6 in the Building 549 lobby. Joseph Bergman, a high school intern in the Center for Cancer Research Nanobiology Laboratory, participated in the event “for the opportunity to present my summer research. It allowed me to meet people and get the experience of sharing and explaining my work.”

The growing diversity of heritable skin diseases, a practical challenge to clinicians and dermatonosologists alike, has nonetheless served as a rich source of insight into skin biology and disease mechanisms. I summarize below some key insights from the recent gene-driven phase of research on Werner syndrome, a heritable adult progeroid syndrome with prominent dermatologic features, constitutional genomic instability and an elevated risk of cancer. I also indicate how new insights into skin biology, disease and aging may come from unexpected sources. PMID:25810110

Helicases use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to separate double-stranded nucleic acids to facilitate essential processes such as replication, recombination, transcription and repair. This article focuses on the human RECQ helicase gene and protein family. Loss of function of three different members has been shown to cause Bloom syndrome (BS), Werner syndrome (WS) and Rothmund–Thomson syndrome (RTS). This article outlines clinical and cellular features of these cancer predisposition syndromes, and discusses their pathogenesis in light of our understanding of RECQ helicase biochemical activities and in vivo functions. I also discuss the emerging role for RECQ helicases as predictors of disease risk and the response to therapy. PMID:20934517

In October 2010, the initial deployment of the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) took place at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for the Storm Peak Laboratory Cloud Property Validation Experiment (STORMVEX). The objective of this field campaign was to obtain data about liquid and mixed-phase clouds using AMF2 instruments in conjunction with Storm Peak Laboratory (located at an elevation of 3220 meters on Mt. Werner), a cloud and aerosol research facility operated by the Desert Research Institute. STORMVEX datasets are freely available for viewing and download. Users are asked to register with the ARM Archive; the user's email address is used from that time forward as the login name.

The quantum correlation under weak measurements is studied via skew information. For 2 × d-dimensional states, it can be given by a closed form which linearly depends on the quantum correlation [EPL. 107 (2014) 10007] determined by the strength of the weak measurement. It is found that the quantum correlation under weak measurements only captures partial quantumness of the state. In particular, the extraction of the residual quantumness by the latter measurements will inevitably destroy too much quantumness. To demonstration, the Werner state is given as an example.

Cardiac catheterization has an illustrious history, originating in 1929 when Werner Forsmann, a surgical resident, performed a heart catheterization on himself. Transcatheter interventional procedures have been performed since the 1960s. The 1st intracardiac procedure to become standard therapy was a balloon atrial septostomy. Skeptics attacked this innovative procedure. However, the balloon septostomy procedure soon became the standard emergency procedure for certain congenital heart defects, and was the impetus for other investigators in the field of transcatheter intervention. We will discuss transcatheter treatment for congenital vascular stenoses and vascular occlusion. Images PMID:9456482

Open quantum system dynamics of random unitary type may in principle be fully undone. Closely following the scheme of environment-assisted error correction proposed by Gregoratti and Werner [J. Mod. Opt.10.1080/09500340308234541 50, 915 (2003)], we explicitly carry out all steps needed to invert a phase-damping error on a single qubit. Furthermore, we extend the scheme to a mixed-state environment. Surprisingly, we find cases for which the uncorrected state is closer to the desired state than any of the corrected ones.

Using a new geometrical method introduced by Werner, we find the deflection angle in the weak limit approximation by a spinning cosmic string in the context of the Einstein-Cartan (EC) theory of gravity. We begin by adopting the String-Randers optical metric, then we apply the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to the optical geometry and derive the leading terms of the deflection angle in the equatorial plane. Calculation shows that light deflection is affected by the intrinsic spin of the cosmic string and torsion.

All four of the most important figures in the early twentieth-century development of quantum physics-Niels Bohr, Erwin Schroedinger, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli-had strong interests in the traditional mind-brain, or 'hard,' problem. This paper reviews their approach to this problem, showing the influence of Bohr's complementarity thesis, the significance of Schroedinger's small book, 'What is life?,' the updated Platonism of Heisenberg and, perhaps most interesting of all, the interaction of Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli in the latter's search for a unification of mind and matter. PMID:16446022

Odoribacter splanchnicus (Werner et al. 1975) Hardham et al. 2008 is the type species of the genus Odoribacter, which belongs to the family Porphyromonadaceae in the order Bacteroidales . The species is of interest because members of the Odoribacter form an isolated cluster within the Porphyromonadaceae. This is the first completed genome sequence of a member of the genus Odoribacter and the fourth sequence from the family Porphyromonadaceae. The 4,392,288 bp long genome with its 3,672 protein-coding and 74 RNA genes and is a part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project.

Class of 2014–2015 Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) student intern Rebecca “Natasha” Freed earned a fourth-place award in biochemistry at the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest high school science research competition in the world, according to the Society for Science & the Public’s website. Freed described the event as “transformative experience,” where she was able to present her research to “experts, including Nobel laureates, as well as members of the general community and, of course, to [other students].”

Thermal striping is one of the possible initiator of pipe rupture. In this framework, thermal fluctuations in a heated periodic channel have been calculated using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The fluid Prandtl number is set to 0.01 and the friction Reynolds number to 395. The Werner and Wengle Wall Function is used with the Navier-Stokes equations to reduce the computational cost. Satisfactory results can be noticed on the temperature fluctuations for low Prandtl number fluids. Several boundary conditions are considered, namely isothermal, isoflux, and conjugate heat transfer. The impacts of the wall properties on the temperature statistics for conjugated heat transfer boundary conditions are deeply analysed.

We study the non-Markovian effect on the dynamics of the quantum discord by exactly solving a model consisting of two independent qubits subject to two zero-temperature non-Markovian reservoirs, respectively. Considering the two qubits initially prepared in Bell-like or extended Werner-like states, we show that there is no occurrence of the sudden death, but only instantaneous disappearance of the quantum discord at some time points, in comparison to the entanglement sudden death in the same range of the parameters of interest. This implies that the quantum discord is more useful than the entanglement to describe the quantum correlation involved in quantum systems.

We study the dynamics of decoherence in an optical fiber for the case of entangled photons. Such a study will allow us to increase the physical length of fiber for transmission of entangled photon from the sources such as SPDC. We analytically derive the model for Decoherence of entangled state photons in a single-mode fiber. We also show that entanglement lifetime can be increased for Bell state and Werner state with open loop control technique called Dynamical decoupling. The authors would like to acknowledge support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation and the Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Are you looking forward to spring? Join Occupational Health Services (OHS) and the R&W Club Frederick for the next Take a Hike Day in April. At the fall event, about 30 employees walked or jogged the 1.3-mile course around the NCI at Frederick campus during their lunch hours. The event is designed to encourage employees to engage in physical activity, according to Sarah Hooper, manager of OHS. “It was so wonderful to see employees walking to wellness,” said Emily Burnett, a Werner H. Kirsten student intern in OHS who helped plan the fall event.

Uterus didelphys with obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal agenesis (OHVIRA) or Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich (HWW) syndrome is a rare congenital urogenital anomaly. A 13-year-old female presented with acute abdominal pain and dysmenorrhea. Ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging showed uterus didelphys, hematometrocolpos, obstructed hemivagina, and right renal agenesis. Hemivaginal septal resection and anastomosis between the obstructed hemivagina and the normal vagina was tried, but it was not possible. Unilateral hysterectomy was performed. HWW syndrome may present with acute abdomen and is usually treated with vaginal septum resection and drainage of the hematometrocolpos. PMID:24461469

We present here a case of an uncommon complex uterine anomaly - Obstructed HemiVagina with Ipsilateral Renal Agenesis (OHVIRA), also known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome in a 14-year-old girl along with sonographic (trans-abdominal and trans labial), and MRI findings. The patient underwent surgery wherein imaging findings were confirmed. An MRI has proved to be of great help in correct diagnosis avoiding surgical interventions/ laparoscopy, which were needed in past to diagnose this rare anomaly. We also discuss the development of this anomaly with the help of a relatively new theory of uro-genital development by Acien and review the literature. PMID:22870020

Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS), characterized by uterus didelphys, obstructed hemivagina, and ipsilateral renal agenesis, is an uncommon combined Mullerian and mesonephric duct anomaly, and its presentation in adulthood is even rarer. We report here a 22-year-old female presenting with primary infertility where magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggested the diagnosis of HWWS with endometriosis. In a patient of infertility with endometriosis and unilateral renal agenesis, diagnosis of HWWS should be suspected and MRI is the investigation of choice for such anomalies. PMID:24347855

This paper is the first published report of vesicular dermatitis due to blister beetles of the family Meloidae in Panamá. A familial outbreak of bullous dermatitis caused by Epicauta flagellaria (Erichson) is described. All previous cases known in the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory were associated with E. isthmica Werner. Bullous lesions are produced when cantharidin, a vesicating toxin contained in the beetle's body, is released at the time the insect is crushed or rubbed upon the exposed skin. Rules for the treatment and prevention of this disease are indicated. PMID:2813877

A three-dimensional periodic table of the elements `Elementouch', useful in a wide variety of occasions of science education, is introduced. The element names are continuously arranged on three circular surfaces representing the electron orbits of an atom. In this way, the properties of each element in its typical ionic state can be seen more clearly than in the widely-used long period table, introduced in 1905 by Alfred Werner. The Elementouch can be readily made using the patterns downloaded from the following URL: http://www.ss.scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp/elementouch/index-e.html .

By Ashley DeVine, Staff Writer Summer interns learned how to read a scientific paper, present a poster, maintain a laboratory notebook, and much more, at the Science Skills Boot Camp in June. “It was a great experience, and it was a great opportunity to meet some of the other interns also working on the campus,” said Alyssa Klein, a Werner H. Kirsten student intern in the Cellular Immunology Group, Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation. “The boot camp covered many topics essential to being a good scientist and science researcher.”

Class of 2014–2015 Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) student intern Rebecca “Natasha” Freed earned a fourth-place award in biochemistry at the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the largest high school science research competition in the world, according to the Society for Science & the Public’s website. Freed described the event as “transformative experience,” where she was able to present her research to “experts, including Nobel laureates, as well as members of the general community and, of course, to [other students].”

By Carolynne Keenan, Contributing Writer When Amy Stull, a 2000 graduate of Walkersville High School, began working in a laboratory at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at Frederick, she likely did not know the role NCI would play in her career. Stull started at NCI as a Werner H. Kirsten (WHK) student intern after her junior year of high school, working in a lab as she prepared for a career in chemical engineering. The student intern program pairs rising high school seniors with laboratory scientists to encourage the students to pursue careers in both science and health care fields.

We present here a case of an uncommon complex uterine anomaly – Obstructed HemiVagina with Ipsilateral Renal Agenesis (OHVIRA), also known as Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome in a 14-year-old girl along with sonographic (trans-abdominal and trans labial), and MRI findings. The patient underwent surgery wherein imaging findings were confirmed. An MRI has proved to be of great help in correct diagnosis avoiding surgical interventions/ laparoscopy, which were needed in past to diagnose this rare anomaly. We also discuss the development of this anomaly with the help of a relatively new theory of uro-genital development by Acien and review the literature. PMID:22870020

We report experimental results on mixed-state generation by multiple scattering of polarization-entangled photon pairs created from parametric down-conversion. By using a large variety of scattering optical systems we have experimentally obtained entangled mixed states that lie upon and below the Werner curve in the linear entropy-tangle plane. We have also introduced a simple phenomenological model built on the analogy between classical polarization optics and quantum maps. Theoretical predictions from such a model are in full agreement with our experimental findings.

Three sessions at international conferences were held in 1997 to discuss the history of space and geophysics and its different disciplines. The first session was held during the Assembly of the German Geophysical Society in March in Potsdam, Germany. Topics included the theory of relativity and gravitation in geophysics; work by Albert Abraham Michelson, Leon Foucault, and Ernst Mach; work by Hermann von Helmholtz; and the physical application and geophysical evidence of Werner Heisenberg's research. Also included were discussions relevant to the history of geophysics, aeronomy, meteor astronomy, and geodetical research, including developments in instrumentation during the last few decades.

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) is one of the most controversial, most ambivalent and most important figures in the history of modern science. The debate surrounding him with respect to nuclear weapons and National Socialism appears unending. Even though Heisenberg's uncertainty principle of the quantum system and his involvement in the Nazi atomic bomb project have been thoroughly discussed in various journals over the past decades, no communication has ever been published at a holistic level of his greatest Nobel-prize winning achievement in theoretical physics. In order to fill up this hole, this piece explicitly communicates the Heisenberg's paradox at all levels of science. PMID:20105124

We employ classical molecular dynamics (MD) to investigate species diffusivity in binary Yukawa mixtures. The Yukawa potential is used to describe the screened Coulomb interaction between the ions, providing the basis for models of dense stellar materials, inertial confined plasmas, and colloidal particles in electrolytes. We use Green-Kubo techniques to calculate self-diffusivities and the Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities, and evaluate the validity of the Darken relation over a range of thermodynamic conditions of the mixture. The inter-diffusivity (or mutual diffusivity) can then be related to the Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities through the thermodynamic factor. The latter requires knowledge of the equation of state of the mixture. To test these Green-Kubo approaches and to estimate the activity contribution we have also employed large-scale non-equilibrium MD. In these simulations we can extract the inter-diffusivity value by calculating the rate of broadening of the interface in a diffusion couple. We also explore thermodynamic conditions for possible non-Fickian diffusivity. The main motivation in this work is to build a model that describes the transport coefficients in binary Yukawa mixtures over a broad range of thermodynamic conditions up to 1keV.

I propose a novel method for the modification of the corrupted human DNAootnotetextJ.D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick, Nature, 171, 737-738 (1953). code that causes particular genetic disease. The method is based on the nonlinear interaction between the DNA molecule and the ``modulation photons'' generated in beat wave driven free electron laser, BW-FEL.ootnotetextV. Alexander Stefan. Beat Wave Driven Free Electron Laser (S-U-Press, 2002, La Jolla, CA)[cf. V. Stefan, et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 32, No. 9, 1713 (1987)] The BW-FEL frequency is given by ν˜γ^2nφe (γ is the free electron beam relativistic factor, n is the harmonic number of the electron Bernstein plasma mode, and φe is the electron cyclotron frequency). The meV ``carrier photons'' are focused on the area of the brain, the source-center of a genetic disease. For the BW-FEL parameters: the free electron beam guiding d.c. magnetic field ˜ 1kG, γ˜10^3, and n=10, the keV ``modulation photons'' are generated, which are easily focused on the nucleotides. By modulating the frequency of the BW-FEL, the parametric resonance with the different DNA (sub-DNA) eigen molecular oscillation-modes are achieved, leading to the ``knock-on'' of the unwanted (corrupted) nucleotides.

This presentation concerns our continued research on adjoint--based optimization of viscous incompressible flows (the Navier--Stokes problem) coupled with heat conduction involving change of phase (the Stefan problem), and occurring in domains with variable boundaries. This problem is motivated by optimization of advanced welding techniques used in automotive manufacturing, where the goal is to determine an optimal heat input, so as to obtain a desired shape of the weld pool surface upon solidification. We argue that computation of sensitivities (gradients) in such free--boundary problems requires the use of the shape--differential calculus as a key ingredient. We also show that, with such tools available, the computational solution of the direct and inverse (optimization) problems can in fact be achieved in a similar manner and in a comparable computational time. Our presentation will address certain mathematical and computational aspects of the method. As an illustration we will consider the two--phase Stefan problem with contact point singularities where our approach allows us to obtain a thermodynamically consistent solution.

Inspired by recent works, we investigate how the thermodynamics parameters (entropy, temperature, number density, energy density, etc) of Bose-Einstein Condensate star scale with the structure of the star. Below the critical temperature in which the condensation starts to occur, we study how the entropy behaves with varying temperature till it reaches its own stability against gravitational collapse and singularity. Compared to photon gases (pressure is described by radiation) where the chemical potential, μ is zero, entropy of photon gases obeys the Stefan-Boltzmann Law for a small values of T while forming a spiral structure for a large values of T due to general relativity. The entropy density of Bose-Einstein Condensate is obtained following the similar sequence but limited under critical temperature condition. We adopt the scalar field equation of state in Thomas-Fermi limit to study the characteristics of relativistic Bose-Einstein condensate under varying temperature and entropy. Finally, we obtain the entropy density proportional to (σT{sup 3}-3T) which obeys the Stefan-Boltzmann Law in ultra-relativistic condition.

In this work, we examine the finite temperature properties of the CPT-even and Lorentz-invariance-violating (LIV) electrodynamics of the standard model extension, represented by the term W{sub {alpha}}{sub {nu}}{sub {rho}}{sub {phi}}F{sup {alpha}}{sup {nu}}F{sup {rho}}{sup {phi}}. We begin analyzing the Hamiltonian structure following the Dirac's procedure for constrained systems and construct a well-defined and gauge invariant partition function in the functional integral formalism. Next, we specialize for the nonbirefringent coefficients of the tensor W{sub {alpha}}{sub {nu}}{sub {rho}}{sub {phi}}. In the sequel, the partition function is explicitly carried out for the parity-even sector of the tensor W{sub {alpha}}{sub {nu}}{sub {rho}}{sub {phi}}. The modified partition function is a power of the Maxwell's partition function. It is observed that the LIV coefficients induce an anisotropy in the black body angular energy density distribution. The Planck's radiation law, however, retains its frequency dependence and the Stefan-Boltzmann law keeps the usual form, except for a change in the Stefan-Boltzmann constant by a factor containing the LIV contributions.

Solving balance equations is the essence of any fluid simulation of reactive, multicomponent plasmas. For plasmas in chemical non-equilibrium, balance equations are solved for all species of interest. When reactions are very fast with respect to transport time scales - and the plasma approaches chemical equilibrium - species abundances can be obtained from equilibrium relations. However, in many cases, balance equations still need to be solved for the elements, since the elemental composition can vary significantly in reactive multicomponent plasmas. Both in equilibrium and in non-equilibrium the species diffusive fluxes in these balance equations are governed by the Stefan-Maxwell equations. The use of Stefan-Maxwell diffusion leads to a coupled set of balance equations. Furthermore, this coupled set of equations is subject to charge and mass conservation constraints. Due to these complications the set of balance equations is often artificially decoupled to fit in the traditional finite volume discretization schemes and the constraints are explicitly applied. This approach can lead to very poor convergence behavior. We will present a new approach using a finite volume discretization scheme that takes into account the coupling and treats the constraints implicitly.

Elevation-dependent warming in high-elevation regions and Arctic amplification are of tremendous interest to many scientists who are engaged in studies in climate change. Here, using annual mean temperatures from 2781 global stations for the 1961-2010 period, we find that the warming for the world’s high-elevation stations (>500 m above sea level) is clearly stronger than their low-elevation counterparts; and the high-elevation amplification consists of not only an altitudinal amplification but also a latitudinal amplification. The warming for the high-elevation stations is linearly proportional to the temperature lapse rates along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients, as a result of the functional shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law in both vertical and latitudinal directions. In contrast, neither altitudinal amplification nor latitudinal amplification is found within the Arctic region despite its greater warming than lower latitudes. Further analysis shows that the Arctic amplification is an integrated part of the latitudinal amplification trend for the low-elevation stations (≤500 m above sea level) across the entire low- to high-latitude Northern Hemisphere, also a result of the mathematical shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law but only in latitudinal direction.

A review of the equations used to determine the 1-D vapor transport in the thermal diffusion cloud chamber (TDCC) is presented. These equations closely follow those of the classical Stefan tube problem in which there is transport of a volatile species through a noncondensible, carrier gas. In both cases, the very plausible assumption is made that the background gas is stagnant. Unfortunately, this assumption results in a convective flux which is inconsistent with the momentum and continuity equations for both systems. The approximation permits derivation of an analytical solution for the concentration profile in the Stefan tube, but there is no computational advantage in the case of the TDCC. Furthermore, the degree of supersaturation is a sensitive function of the concentration profile in the TD CC and the stagnant background gas approximation can make a dramatic difference in the calculated supersaturation. In this work, the equations typically used with a TDCC are compared with very general transport equations describing the 1-D diffusion of the volatile species. Whereas no pressure dependence is predicted with the typical equations, a strong pressure dependence is present with the more general equations given in this work. The predicted behavior is consistent with observations in diffusion cloud experiments. It appears that the new equations may account for much of the pressure dependence noted in TDCC experiments, but a comparison between the new equations and previously obtained experimental data are needed for verification.

The AURORA sensor slated for flight on the NPOESS satellites represents the culmination of over 20 years of experience at JHU/APL in the design, manufacture, flight, operation and analysis of compact, cost-effective far ultraviolet sensors for space weather data collection. The far ultraviolet covers the spectral range from about 115 to 185 nm. This region is ideal for observations of the upper atmosphere because, at these wavelengths, the lower atmosphere and Earth's surface are black. AURORA will observe the mid- and low-latitude F-region ionosphere, the auroral E-region ionosphere, the day thermosphere composition, auroral energy deposition and map ionospheric irregularities. AURORA implements the flight-proven design derived from SSUSI on the DMSP Block 5D spacecraft and GUVI on the NASA TIMED spacecraft. These instruments have provided the instrument and algorithm heritage for NPOESS/AURORA. In this talk the performance capabilities of the AURORA instrument will be summarized along with the design of the instrument and algorithms. Example products will be shown for each of the measurement regimes. We acknowldge support from DMSP and NASA and the collaboration with our science colleagues at the Aerospace Corporation (Paul Straus, Jim Hecht, Dave McKenzie, and Andy Christensen) and Computational Physics (Doug Strickland, Hal Knight, and Scott Evans) and Naval Research Laboratory (Robert Meier, Mike Picone, Stefan Thonnard, Pat Dandenault, and Andy Stefan) and our colleagues at APL (Michele Weiss, Doug Holland, Bill Wood, and Jim Eichert) among others.

A generalization of the Stefan-Skapski-Turnbull relation for the melt-crystal specific interfacial energy is developed in terms of the generalized Gibbs approach extending its standard formulation to thermodynamic non-equilibrium states. With respect to crystal nucleation, this relation is required in order to determine the parameters of the critical crystal clusters being a prerequisite for the computation of the work of critical cluster formation. As one of its consequences, a relation for the dependence of the specific surface energy of critical clusters on temperature and pressure is derived applicable for small and moderate deviations from liquid-crystal macroscopic equilibrium states. Employing the Stefan-Skapski-Turnbull relation, general expressions for the size and the work of formation of critical crystal clusters are formulated. The resulting expressions are much more complex as compared to the respective relations obtained via the classical Gibbs theory. Latter relations are retained as limiting cases of these more general expressions for moderate undercoolings. By this reason, the formulated, here, general relations for the specification of the critical cluster size and the work of critical cluster formation give a key for an appropriate interpretation of a variety of crystallization phenomena occurring at large undercoolings which cannot be understood in terms of the Gibbs' classical treatment.

Elevation-dependent warming in high-elevation regions and Arctic amplification are of tremendous interest to many scientists who are engaged in studies in climate change. Here, using annual mean temperatures from 2781 global stations for the 1961–2010 period, we find that the warming for the world’s high-elevation stations (>500 m above sea level) is clearly stronger than their low-elevation counterparts; and the high-elevation amplification consists of not only an altitudinal amplification but also a latitudinal amplification. The warming for the high-elevation stations is linearly proportional to the temperature lapse rates along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients, as a result of the functional shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law in both vertical and latitudinal directions. In contrast, neither altitudinal amplification nor latitudinal amplification is found within the Arctic region despite its greater warming than lower latitudes. Further analysis shows that the Arctic amplification is an integrated part of the latitudinal amplification trend for the low-elevation stations (≤500 m above sea level) across the entire low- to high-latitude Northern Hemisphere, also a result of the mathematical shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law but only in latitudinal direction. PMID:26753547

Universal exhaust gas oxygen sensors (UEGOs) are in widespread use in internal combustion engines where they are used to measure lambda (the non-dimensional air-fuel ratio) and oxygen concentration (X_{O_2 }). The sensors are used on production engines and for research and development. In a previous paper, a model of the UEGO sensor was presented, based on a solution of the Stefan-Maxwell equations for an axisymmetric geometry, and it was shown that for a known gas composition, predictions of the sensor response agreed well with experiment. In the present paper, the more ‘practical’ problem is addressed: how well can such a model predict λ and X_{O_2 } based on the sensor response? For IC engine applications, a chemistry model is required in order to predict λ, and such a model is also desirable for an accurate prediction of X_{O_2 }. A fast (matrix exponential) method of solving the Stefan-Maxwell equations is also introduced, which offers the possibility of a near real-time computation of λ and X_{O_2 }, with application, for example, to bench instruments. Extensive results are presented showing how the interpretation of the UEGO response may be compromised by uncertainties. These uncertainties may relate not only to the sensor itself, such as temperature, pressure and mean pore diameter, but also the chemistry model.

A phenomenological model was developed for multicomponent transport of charged species with simultaneous electrochemical reactions in concentrated solutions, and was applied to model processes in a thermal battery cell. A new general framework was formulated and implemented in GOMA (a multidimensional, multiphysics, finite-element computer code developed and being enhanced at Sandia) for modeling multidimensional, multicomponent transport of neutral and charged species in concentrated solutions. The new framework utilizes the Stefan-Maxwell equations that describe multicomponent diffusion of interacting species using composition-insensitive binary diffusion coefficients. The new GOMA capability for modeling multicomponent transport of neutral species was verified and validated using the model problem of ternary gaseous diffusion in a Stefan tube. The new GOMA-based thermal battery computer model was verified using an idealized battery cell in which concentration gradients are absent; the full model was verified by comparing with that of Bernardi and Newman (1987) and validated using limited thermal battery discharge-performance data from the open literature (Dunning 1981) and from Sandia (Guidotti 1996). Moreover, a new Liquid Chemkin Software Package was developed, which allows the user to handle manly aspects of liquid-phase kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport (particularly in terms of computing properties). Lastly, a Lattice-Boltzmann-based capability was developed for modeling pore- or micro-scale phenomena involving convection, diffusion, and simplified chemistry; this capability was demonstrated by modeling phenomena in the cathode region of a thermal battery cell.

Detailed numerical simulations of multicomponent plasmas require tractable expressions for species diffusion fluxes, which must be consistent with the given plasma current density J{sub q} to preserve local charge neutrality. The common situation in which J{sub q} = 0 is referred to as ambipolar diffusion. The use of formal kinetic theory in this context leads to results of formidable complexity. We derive simple tractable approximations for the diffusion fluxes in two-temperature multicomponent plasmas by means of a generalization of the hydrodynamical approach used by Maxwell, Stefan, Furry, and Williams. The resulting diffusion fluxes obey generalized Stefan-Maxwell equations that contain driving forces corresponding to ordinary, forced, pressure, and thermal diffusion. The ordinary diffusion fluxes are driven by gradients in pressure fractions rather than mole fractions. Simplifications due to the small electron mass are systematically exploited and lead to a general expression for the ambipolar electric field in the limit of infinite electrical conductivity. We present a self-consistent effective binary diffusion approximation for the diffusion fluxes. This approximation is well suited to numerical implementation and is currently in use in our LAVA computer code for simulating multicomponent thermal plasmas. Applications to date include a successful simulation of demixing effects in an argon-helium plasma jet, for which selected computational results are presented. Generalizations of the diffusion theory to finite electrical conductivity and nonzero magnetic field are currently in progress.

A method combining features of front-tracking methods and fixed-domain methods is presented to model dendritic solidification of pure materials. To explicitly track the interface growth and shape of the solidifying crystals, a fronttracking approach based on the level set method is implemented. To easily model the heat and momentum transport, a fixed-domain method is implemented assuming a diffused freezing front where the liquid fraction is defined in terms of the level set function. The fixed-domain approach, by avoiding the explicit application of essential boundary conditions on the freezing front, leads to an energy conserving methodology that is not sensitive to the mesh size. To compute the freezing front morphology, an extended Stefan condition is considered. Applications to several classical Stefan problems and two- and three-dimensional crystal growth of pure materials in an undercooled melt including the effects of melt flow are considered. The computed results agree very well with available analytical solutions as well as with results obtained using front-tracking techniques and the phase-field method.

Elevation-dependent warming in high-elevation regions and Arctic amplification are of tremendous interest to many scientists who are engaged in studies in climate change. Here, using annual mean temperatures from 2781 global stations for the 1961-2010 period, we find that the warming for the world's high-elevation stations (>500 m above sea level) is clearly stronger than their low-elevation counterparts; and the high-elevation amplification consists of not only an altitudinal amplification but also a latitudinal amplification. The warming for the high-elevation stations is linearly proportional to the temperature lapse rates along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients, as a result of the functional shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law in both vertical and latitudinal directions. In contrast, neither altitudinal amplification nor latitudinal amplification is found within the Arctic region despite its greater warming than lower latitudes. Further analysis shows that the Arctic amplification is an integrated part of the latitudinal amplification trend for the low-elevation stations (≤500 m above sea level) across the entire low- to high-latitude Northern Hemisphere, also a result of the mathematical shape of Stefan-Boltzmann law but only in latitudinal direction. PMID:26753547

The primary objective of the STS-99 mission was to complete high resolution mapping of large sections of the Earth's surface using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), a specially modified radar system. This radar system produced unrivaled 3-D images of the Earth's Surface. This videotape shows a science press briefing. The panel members are Michael Kobrick, the SRTM Project Scientist at JPL; Thomas Henning, SRTM Program Manager at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency; Diane Evans, the Director of the Earth Sciences Program at NASA; and Marian Werner, XSAR Project Manager for the DLR, Deutschen Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Germany's National Aerospace Research Center. Michael Kobrick explained the mechanics of interferometric measurements of the Earth. He explained and demonstrated with a scale model the deployable mast's use. He also explained the importance of the attitude and orbit determination avionics. A brief animated video showing how four beams would give a 225 km wide swath of the Earth topography was viewed. Thomas Henning discussed some of the usage of the digital terrain elevation data for flood relief planning, cell phone station placement, military planning for command and control centers, and flight simulation. He explained that public access to the most precise data would be limited. Diane Evans described data usage in flood prediction, earthquake fault identification and archeology. Marian Werner described the German and Italian input to the project. The questions from the press concerned the time to process this data, and the reasons for the limited access to the more precise data.

In this paper, we present a class of maps for which the multiplicativity of the maximal output p-norm holds for p =2 and p ≥4. The class includes all positive trace-preserving maps from B(C3) to B(C2). In this sense, the result is a generalization of the corresponding result in the work of King and Koldan ["New multiplicativity results for qubit maps," J. Math. Phys. 47, 042106 (2006)], where the multiplicativity was proved for all positive trace-preserving maps from B(C2) to B(C2) with p =2 and p ≥4. Interestingly, by contrast, the multiplicativity of p-norm was investigated in the context of quantum information theory and shown not to hold, in general, for high dimensional quantum channels [Hayden, P. and Winter, A., "Counterexamples to the maximal p-norm multiplicativity conjecture for all p >1," Commun. Math. Phys. 284, 263 (2008)]. Moreover, the Werner-Holevo channel, which is a map from B(C3) to B(C3), is a counterexample for p >4.79 [Werner and Holevo, J. Math. Phys. 43, 4353 (2002).].

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer WRNIP1 accumulates in laser light irradiated sites very rapidly via UBZ domain. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The ATPase domain of WRNIP1 is dispensable for its accumulation. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The accumulation of WRNIP1 seems not to be dependent on the interaction with WRN. -- Abstract: WRNIP1 (Werner helicase-interacting protein 1) was originally identified as a protein that interacts with the Werner syndrome responsible gene product. WRNIP1 contains a ubiquitin-binding zinc-finger (UBZ) domain in the N-terminal region and two leucine zipper motifs in the C-terminal region. In addition, it possesses an ATPase domain in the middle of the molecule and the lysine residues serving as ubiquitin acceptors in the entire of the molecule. Here, we report that WRNIP1 accumulates in laser light irradiated sites very rapidly via its ubiquitin-binding zinc finger domain, which is known to bind polyubiquitin and to be involved in ubiquitination of WRNIP1 itself. The accumulation of WRNIP1 in laser light irradiated sites also required the C-terminal region containing two leucine zippers, which is reportedly involved in the oligomerization of WRNIP1. Mutated WRNIP1 with a deleted ATPase domain or with mutations in lysine residues, which serve as ubiquitin acceptors, accumulated in laser light irradiated sites, suggesting that the ATPase domain of WRNIP1 and ubiquitination of WRNIP1 are dispensable for the accumulation.

Highlights: {yields} In this study, we investigated the effect of a DNA secondary structure on the two WRN activities. {yields} We found that a DNA secondary structure of the displaced strand during unwinding stimulates WRN helicase without coordinate action of WRN exonuclease. {yields} These results imply that WRN helicase and exonuclease activities can act independently. -- Abstract: Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive premature aging disorder characterized by aging-related phenotypes and genomic instability. WS is caused by mutations in a gene encoding a nuclear protein, Werner syndrome protein (WRN), a member of the RecQ helicase family, that interestingly possesses both helicase and exonuclease activities. Previous studies have shown that the two activities act in concert on a single substrate. We investigated the effect of a DNA secondary structure on the two WRN activities and found that a DNA secondary structure of the displaced strand during unwinding stimulates WRN helicase without coordinate action of WRN exonuclease. These results imply that WRN helicase and exonuclease activities can act independently, and we propose that the uncoordinated action may be relevant to the in vivo activity of WRN.

The Powder River Basin, and specifically the Gillette coal field, contains large quantities of economically extractable coal resources. These coal resources have low total sulfur content and ash yield, and most of the resources are subbituminous in rank. A recent U.S Geological Survey study of economically extractable coal in the Gillette coal field focused on five coal beds, the Wyodak rider, Upper Wyodak, Canyon, Lower Wyodak-Werner, and Gates/Kennedy. This report compares the coal quality of these economically extractable coal beds to coal in the Wyodak-Anderson coal zone in the Powder River Basin and in the Gillette coal field (Flores and others, 1999) and other produced coal in the Gillette coal field (Glass, 2000). The Upper Wyodak, Canyon, and Lower Wyodak/Werner beds are within the Wyodak-Anderson coal zone. Compared with all coal in the Wyodak-Anderson coal zone, both throughout the Powder River Basin and just within the Gillette coal field; the thick, persistent Upper Wyodak coal bed in the Gillette coal field has higher mean gross calorific value (8,569 Btu/lb), lower mean ash yield (5.8 percent), and lower mean total sulfur content (0.46 percent).

Ultraviolet spectra of the Jovian equatorial dayglow in the spectral range 830-1850 A were obtained at about 3 A resolution. The observed spectrum is dominated by electron impact excitation of the H2 Lyman and Werner band systems. Solar Lyman-beta induced fluorescence in the (6, nu-double prime) Lyman band progression is clearly identified in five distinct P(1) lines, and the contribution of solar fluorescence to the total 2.3 kR slit-averaged H2 emission rate is estimated to be 17-22 percent. The electron excitation spectrum is characterized by a relative weakness of the Werner band system and the absence of cascade contributions to the Lyman system and is very similar to that of the south polar aurora. The integrated H2 emission rate in the 900-1100 A band is a factor of two lower than that measured by the Voyager UVS. Based on model calculations, photoelectron excitation does not appear able to account for the amount of observed electron-excited H2 emission.

A spectrum of Pi Sco showing numerous atomic lines and 70 absorption features from the Lyman and Werner transitions of interstellar H2 in rotational level J from zero to five is presented. Their shapes of the composite column density profiles are very nearly Gaussian with a one-dimensional rms velocity dispersion of 3 km/s. The behavior of shifts in the inferred N(H2) as a function of velocity are consistent with the overall profiles being composed of nearly symmetrical, tightly paced assemblies of about seven unresolved components. The relative overall column densities in the higher J levels of H2 are consistent with a model where these states are populated by optical pumping through the Lyman and Werner transitions, powered by UV radiation from nearby stars. The slight narrowing of the high-J profiles may be due to small clumps of H2 at radial velocities some 5-8 km/s from the core of the profile are exposed to a pumping flux about 10 times lower than that for the material near the profile's center.

The results of a series of IUE observations of the north polar aurora obtained during a substantial fraction of one complete rotation of Jupiter are presented. From these data a spectrum of the aurora with high signal to noise ratio, and a resolution of about 8 A was obtained, making possible the identification of many H2 Lyman and Werner bands. The spectrum is of sufficient quality to provide reliable quantative data for a comparison with the model atmosphere calculations. The lack of an observable absorption signature makes it possible to set an upper limit on the column density of CH4 and C2H6 above the auroral emissions and hence an upper limit on the primary particle energies. A comparison of this spectrum with a laboratory spectrum of discharge excited H2 shows a remarkable similarity. The results of several IUE observations of the full disk of Saturn are also examined. The exposures were of approximately 2 hours each, and the H2 Lyman and Werner bands were observed near the north pole in two of them.

The genus Apteromantis Werner, 1931 comprises two species of wingless mantids, the Iberian A. aptera (Fuente, 1894) and the North African A. bolivari (Werner, 1929). Although A. aptera and A. bolivari have been traditionally considered as separate and valid species, their external appearance is quite similar and no comprehensive taxonomic study has analyzed their morphological and genetic characteristics. This taxonomic uncertainty has important implications for conservation because A. aptera is considered an Iberian endemic and the only praying mantis protected by international laws. In this study, we apply a comprehensive approach, including quantitative morphological and molecular analyses, to shed new light on the taxonomic and conservation status of the genus Apteromantis and the putative species. We have found that the Iberian and North African specimens analyzed herein significantly differ in female head shape, male genitalia morphology and several other traits related to body size. Molecular data suggest the presence of two main lineages, with sequence divergence rates of approximately 4 %, which are within the range reported for other well defined insect species. Overall, this study supports that A. aptera and A. bolivari are valid species despite their ecological and morphological similarity and highlights the importance of comprehensive approaches to resolve old taxonomic and conservation problems. PMID:24870858

Mount Erebus, a large intraplate stratovolcano dominating Ross Island, Antarctica, hosts the world's only active phonolite lava lakes. The main manifestation of activity at Erebus volcano in December 2004 was as the presence of two convecting lava lakes within an inner crater. The long-lived Ray Lake, ~ 1400 m 2 in area, was the site of up to 10 small Strombolian eruptions per day. A new but short-lived, ~ 1000-1200 m 2 lake formed at Werner vent in December 2004 sourced by lava flowing from a crater formed in 1993 by a phreatic eruption. We measured the radiative heat flux from the two lakes in December 2004 using a compact infrared (IR) imaging camera. Daily thermal IR surveys from the Main Crater rim provide images of the lava lake surface temperatures and identify sites of upwelling and downwelling. The radiative heat outputs calculated for the Ray and Werner Lakes are 30-35 MW and 20 MW, respectively. We estimate that the magma flux needed to sustain the combined heat loss is ~ 250-710 kg s - 1 , that the minimum volume of the magma reservoir is 2 km 3, and that the radius of the conduit feeding the Ray lake is ~ 2 m.

Ultraviolet spectra of the Jovian equatorial dayglow in the spectral range 830-1850 A were obtained at about 3 A resolution. The observed spectrum is dominated by electron impact excitation of the H2 Lyman and Werner band systems. Solar Lyman-beta induced fluorescence in the (6, nu-double prime) Lyman band progression is clearly identified in five distinct P(1) lines, and the contribution of solar fluorescence to the total 2.3 kR slit-averaged H2 emission rate is estimated to be 17-22 percent. The electron excitation spectrum is characterized by a relative weakness of the Werner band system and the absence of cascade contributions to the Lyman system and is very similar to that of the south polar aurora. The integrated H2 emission rate in the 900-1100 A band is a factor of two lower than that measured by the Voyager UVS. Based on model calculations, photoelectron excitation does not appear able to account for the amount of observed electron-excited H2 emission.

OHVIRA (Obstructed hemivagina and ipsilateral renal anomaly) by acronym and abbreviations in English or Herlyn Werner Wunderlich syndrome is a rare congenital malformation caused by an alteration in the Mullerian ducts and Wolffian Ducts. Which is characterized by a triad: uterus didelphys, obstructed and ipsilateral renal agenesis hemivagina still uncertain etiology. Patients are usually asymptomatic until menarche where the most common clinical presentation is pelvic pain, followed by a vaginal or abdominal mass, normal menstrual periods, infertility, and vaginal discharge rarely appears. The case of a female patient of 15 years, nubile with chronic fetid vaginal discharge, initially diagnosed and treated as pelvic inflammatory disease occurs, however because it is an exceptional condition with the background of the patient, by complementary studies were conducted where pelvic ultrasound revealed pyocolpos and absence of left kidney, uterus didelphys, blind hemivagina by other imaging studies, where we could integrate Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome. In conclusion, abnormalities in the development of the Miillerian ducts are difficult to diagnose early, so you must have the embryological knowledge, conduct thorough clinical assessment and detailed picture in whom the coridition is suspected to identify malformations coexisting urinary tract and vaginal defects with the importance of preserving reproductive success through appropriate planning of surgical approach, given that the fertility rate in these patients is comparable to the average. PMID:25510063

The dielectric model for waves in the Earth's ionosphere is further developed and applied to possible electro-magnetic phenomena in seismic regions. In doing so, in comparison to the well-known dielectric wave model by R.O. Dendy [Plasma dynamics, Oxford University Press, 1990] for homogeneous systems, the stratification of the atmosphere is taken into account. Moreover, within the frame of many-fluid magnetohydrodynamics also the momentum transfer between the charged and neutral particles is considered. Discussed are the excitation of Alfvén and magnetoacoustic waves, but also their variations by the neutral gas winds. Further, also other current driven waves like Farley-Buneman ones are studied. In the work, models of the altitudinal scales of the plasma parameters and the electromagnetic wave field are derived. In case of the electric wave field, a method is given to calculate the altitudinal scale based on the Poisson equation for the electric field and the magnetohydrodynamic description of the particles. Further, expressions are derived to estimate density, pressure, and temperatur changes in the E-layer because of the generation of the electromagnetic waves. Last not least, formulas are obtained to determine the dispersion and polarisation of the excited electromagnetic waves. These are applied to find quantitative results for the turbulent heating of the ionospheric E-layer. Concerning the calculation of the dispersion relation, in comparison to a former work by Meister et al. [Contr. Plasma Phys. 53 (4-5), 406-413, 2013], where a numerical double-iteration method was suggested to obtain results for the wave dispersion relations, now further analytical calculations are performed. In doing so, different polynomial dependencies of the wave frequencies from the wave vectors are treated. This helped to restrict the numerical calculations to only one iteration process.

This study is concerned with how information about the direction of visual motion is encoded by motion-sensitive neurons. Motion-sensitive neurons are usually studied using stimuli unchanging in speed and direction over several seconds. Recently, it has been suggested that neuronal responses to more naturalistic stimuli cannot be understood on the basis of experiments with constant-motion stimuli (de Ruyter van Steveninck et al., 1997). We measured the variability and information content of spike trains recorded from directional neurons in the nucleus of the optic tract (NOT) of the wallaby, Macropus eugenii, in response to constant and time-varying motion. While the NOT forms part of the mammalian optokinetic system, we have shown previously that the responses of its directional neurons resemble those of insect H1 in many respects (Ibbotson et al., 1994). We find that directional neurons in the wallaby NOT respond with lower variability and higher rates of information transmission to time-varying stimuli than to constant motion. The difference in response variability is predicted by an inhomogeneous Poisson model of neuronal spiking incorporating an absolute refractory period of 2 ms during which no subsequent spike can be fired. Refractoriness imposes structure on the spike train, reducing variability (de Ruyter van Steveninck & Bialek, 1988; Berry & Meister, 1998). A given refractory period has a greater impact when firing rates are high, as for the responses of NOT neurons to time-varying stimuli. It is in just these cases that variability in experimentally observed spike trains is lowest. Thus, differences in response variability do not necessarily imply that different models are required to predict neuronal responses to constant- and time-varying motion stimuli. PMID:10824675

This paper seeks to convey an insight into the interrelationships between body, soul and mind and to show how the concept of "soul" has evolved through the course of history. In German the word "soul" has a confusing array of meanings today. For most of us it comprises all of man's emotions, his awareness, constructive thought, drive, state of mind and spirit. The soul thus represents the essence of a person and his relationships to those closest to him. For many people the soul was and still is the principle of life, the breath of life and the force of life. The immortal soul escapes, leaves the body, is weighed and judged. At all times in history man has doggedly pursued the mysteries of self-awareness, the ultimate truth and the soul. What he found varied, depending on the age and the place. What the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament express in deep-seated metaphors, the Greek philosophers put into clear-cut words: their concept of soul was then largely integrated into Christian thought. Meister Eckhart describes the soul in mystically transfigured passion. C.G. Jung writes of the "animus and anima." Sigmund Freud uses the term "psyche." Radical materialism denies the existence and independence of the soul's processes. The questions where we come from and where we are going, why and what for, no longer find a common answer. Psychiatry, however, takes up the intellectual call of the time and replies to the challenges of the day. Thus, the search for the "soul", a search that occupies so many people, also always involves the search for the whole person. PMID:12503473

Objective. Accurate modeling of retinal information processing remains a major challenge in retinal physiology with applications in visual rehabilitation and prosthetics. Most of the current artificial retinas are fed with static frame-based information, losing thereby the fundamental asynchronous features of biological vision. The objective of this work is to reproduce the spatial and temporal properties of the majority of ganglion cell (GC) types in the mammalian retina. Approach. Here, we combined an asynchronous event-based light sensor with a model pulling nonlinear subunits to reproduce the parallel filtering and temporal coding occurring in the retina. We fitted our model to physiological data and were able to reconstruct the spatio-temporal responses of the majority of GC types previously described in the mammalian retina (Roska et al 2006 J. Neurophysiol. 95 3810-22). Main results. Fitting of the temporal and spatial components of the response was achieved with high coefficients of determination (median R(2) = 0.972 and R(2) = 0.903, respectively). Our model provides an accurate temporal precision with a reliability of only few milliseconds-peak of the distribution at 5 ms-similar to biological retinas (Berry et al 1997 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94 5411-16; Gollisch and Meister 2008 Science 319 1108-11). The spiking statistics of the model also followed physiological measurements (Fano factor: 0.331). Significance. This new asynchronous retinal model therefore opens new perspectives in the development of artificial visual systems and visual prosthetic devices. PMID:23075696

Thermal radiation plays an increasingly important role in many emerging energy technologies, such as thermophotovoltaics, passive radiative cooling and wearable cooling clothes [1]. One of the fundamental constraints in thermal radiation is the Stefan-Boltzmann law, which limits the maximum power of far-field radiation to P0 = σT4S, where σ is the Boltzmann constant, S and T are the area and the temperature of the emitter, respectively (Fig. 1a). In order to overcome this limit, it has been shown that near-field radiations could have an energy density that is orders of magnitude greater than the Stefan-Boltzmann law [2-7]. Unfortunately, such near-field radiation transfer is spatially confined and cannot carry radiative heat to the far field. Recently, a new concept of thermal extraction was proposed [8] to enhance far-field thermal emission, which, conceptually, operates on a principle similar to oil immersion lenses and light extraction in light-emitting diodes using solid immersion lens to increase light output [62].Thermal extraction allows a blackbody to radiate more energy to the far field than the apparent limit of the Stefan-Boltzmann law without breaking the second law of thermodynamics. Thermal extraction works by using a specially designed thermal extractor to convert and guide the near-field energy to the far field, as shown in Fig. 1b. The same blackbody as shown in Fig. 1a is placed closely below the thermal extractor with a spacing smaller than the thermal wavelength. The near-field coupling transfers radiative energy with a density greater than σT4. The thermal extractor, made from transparent and high-index or structured materials, does not emit or absorb any radiation. It transforms the near-field energy and sends it toward the far field. As a result, the total amount of far-field radiative heat dissipated by the same blackbody is greatly enhanced above SσT4, where S is the area of the emitter. This paper will review the progress in thermal

The effects of soil property uncertainties on permafrost thaw projections are studied using a three-phase subsurface thermal hydrology model and calibration-constrained uncertainty analysis. The null-space Monte Carlo method is used to identify soil hydrothermal parameter combinations that are consistent with borehole temperature measurements at the study site, the Barrow Environmental Observatory. Each parameter combination is then used in a forward projection of permafrost conditions for the 21st century (from calendar year 2006 to 2100) using atmospheric forcings from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas concentration trajectory. A 100-year projection allows for the evaluation of predictive uncertainty (due to soil property (parametric) uncertainty) and the inter-annual climate variability due to year to year differences in CESM climate forcings. After calibrating to measured borehole temperature data at this well-characterized site, soil property uncertainties are still significant and result in significant predictive uncertainties in projected active layer thickness and annual thaw depth-duration even with a specified future climate. Inter-annual climate variability in projected soil moisture content and Stefan number are small. A volume- and time-integrated Stefan number decreases significantly, indicating a shift in subsurface energy utilization in the future climate (latent heat of phase change becomes more important than heat conduction). Out of 10 soil parameters, ALT, annual thaw depth-duration, and Stefan number are highly dependent on mineral soil porosity, while annual mean liquid saturation of the active layer is highly dependent on the mineral soil residual saturation and moderately dependent on peat residual saturation. By comparing the ensemble statistics to the spread of projected permafrost metrics using different climate models, we quantify the relative magnitude of soil

The International Workshop on Multi-Rate Processes and Hysteresis (MURPHYS) conference series focuses on multiple scale systems, singular perturbation problems, phase transitions and hysteresis phenomena occurring in physical, biological, chemical, economical, engineering and information systems. The 6th edition was hosted by Stefan cel Mare University in the city of Suceava located in the beautiful multicultural land of Bukovina, Romania, from May 21 to 24, 2012. This continued the series of biennial multidisciplinary conferences organized in Cork, Ireland from 2002 to 2008 and in Pécs, Hungary in 2010. The MURPHYS 2012 Workshop brought together more than 50 researchers in hysteresis and multi-scale phenomena from the United State of America, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Ukraine, and Romania. Participants shared and discussed new developments of analytical techniques and numerical methods along with a variety of their applications in various areas, including material sciences, electrical and electronics engineering, mechanical engineering and civil structures, biological and eco-systems, economics and finance. The Workshop was sponsored by the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Program Human Resources 2007-2013 (PRO-DOCT) and Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava. The Organizing Committee was co-chaired by Mihai Dimian from Stefan cel Mare University, Suceava (Romania), Amalia Ivanyi from the University of Pecs (Hungary), and Dmitrii Rachinskii from the University College Cork (Ireland). All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing. The Guest Editors wish to place on record their sincere gratitude to Miss Sarah Toms for the assistance she provided

Lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae) are relatively sedentary and are presumed to have limited dispersal ability (Marsh et al. 2004. Ecology 85:3396–3405). Site fidelity in Plethodontidae is high, and individuals displaced 90 m return to home territories (Kleeberger and Werner 1982. Copeia 1982:409–415). Individuals defend territories (Jaeger et al. 1982. Anim. Behav. 30:490–496) and female home ranges have been estimated to be 24.34 m2 (Kleeberger and Werner 1982, op. cit.). Females may seek out suitable subsurface habitat to oviposit eggs, yet little is known about their maximum movement distances (Petranka 1998. Salamanders of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington. 587 pp.).On 18 September 2014, a female P. cinereus (lead back morphotype; SVL = 44.68 mm; 0.89 g) was found under a coverboard during a standard sampling event and uniquely marked using visual implant elastomer at the S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, Massachusetts, USA (42.59280°N, 72.58070°W, datum WGS84; elev. 74 m). This individual was subsequently recaptured at ~1500 h on 8 October 2014 under a coverboard within 3 m of the original capture location and then again ~1430 h on 16 October 2014 under a log, within the same forest patch, though in a 50 x 150 m area adjacent to the original study area. Because we found the marked salamander while collecting multiple individuals for a laboratory study, the exact recapture location of the marked individual is not known. However, the distance between the 8 October capture location and the nearest edge of the 16 October search area (i.e. 50 x 150 m) was 143 m, indicating a minimum movement distance. As far as we are aware, this is the longest recorded movement for P. cinereus by more than 53 m (Kleeberger and Werner 1982, op. cit.). This finding followed a rain event of 1.63 cm within 24 h and the second largest sustained rain event during October. The movement we observed may have been due to

In the early part of the 20th century, the pioneers of radioactivity research, led by Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford and Stefan Meyer, formed a Commission internationale des étalons de radium. The Commission made arrangements for the preparation and intercomparisons of the international standards of radium, which were identified as the Paris standard and the Vienna standard. Otto Hönigschmid from Vienna prepared a first set of international secondary standards in 1912 and a second set in 1934. In both instances, these secondary standards were compared by gamma-ray measurements with the Paris and Vienna standards. The usage of these international standards of radium in the 20th century is described. PMID:11839059

The results of numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer in an ejection apparatus during condensation of vapor-gas mixture components on cold brine droplets are presented. The local parameters of working flows were determined by solving a system of differential heat transfer equations with account for the hydrodynamic pattern. Calculations were carried out on the assumption that the liquid spray is directed horizontally. The Stefan formula has been derived with reference to a spherical coordinate system. The results of calculation of heat and mass transfer rates with and without regard for steam condensation jointly with hydrocarbon vapors are compared and analyzed. Estimation of the effect exerted by the apparatus and drip pan walls on the general process of heat and mass transfer was carried out. The results of simulation made it possible to quantitatively estimate the influence of the adopted thickness of the diffusional boundary layer on the vapor-air mixture cooling effect.

River discharges with very high sediment loads have the potential to develop into plunging hyperpycnal flows that transition from a river jet to a turbidity current at some location basinward of the river mouth due to the density difference between the turbid river and the receiving water body. However, even if the bulk density of the turbid river is greater than that of the receiving lake or ocean, some distance is needed for the forward inertia of the river to dissipate so that the downward gravitational pull can cause the system to collapse into a subaqueous turbidity current. This collapsing at the plunge point has been found to occur when the densimetric Froude number decreases to a value between 0.3 < Frd < 0.7 (Fang and Stefan 2000, Parker and Toniolo 2007, Dai and Garcia 2010, Lamb et al. 2010). In 2D channel flow analysis at the plunge point, this has led to the concept of a two-fold criterion for plunging. The first is simply for the need of high enough suspended sediment concentration to overcome the density difference between the river fluid and the fluid of the receiving water. The second is the need for sufficiently deep water to reduce the densimetric Froude below the critical value for plunging, which leads to dependence of plunging on the receiving water basin topography (Lamb et al. 2010). In this analysis, we expand on past work by solving a system of ODE river jet equations to account for bottom friction, lateral entrainment of ambient fluid, and particle settling between the river mouth and the plunge location. Typical entrainment and bottom friction coefficients are used and the model is tested against the laboratory density current data of Fang and Stefan (1991). A suite of conditions is solved with variable river discharge velocity, aspect ratio, suspended sediment concentration, and particle size; a range of salinity values and bottom slopes are used for the receiving water body. The plunge location is then expressed as a function of the

A Multi-pixel Geiger-mode APD, often called a Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM), is a new type of photon counting device made up of multiple APD pixels operated in the Geiger-mode, which started to replace the PMT in a certain parts of photodetection field. Stefan Meyer Institute in Vienna has been working on an evaluation of several kinds of SiPMs from different manufacturers with different sizes of cells, sensitive area. We operate SiPMs in combination with scintillating fiber and Cherenkov radiator to test its potential with special focus on its timing performance, compactness and low-cost. The detectors are going to be applied in experiments like FOPI, AMADEUS and PANDA.

Earth's climate sensitivity is often interpreted in terms of feedbacks that can alter the sensitivity from that of a no-feedback Stefan-Boltzmann radiator, with the feedback concept and algebra introduced by analogy to the use of this concept in the electronics literature. This analogy is quite valuable in interpreting the sensitivity of the climate system, but usage of this algebra and terminology in the climate literature is often inconsistent, with resultant potential for confusion and loss of physical insight. Here a simple and readily understood electrical resistance circuit is examined in terms of feedback theory to introduce and define the terminology that is used to quantify feedbacks. This formalism is applied to the feedbacks in an energy-balance model of Earth's climate and used to interpret the magnitude of feedback in the climate system that corresponds to present estimates of Earth's climate sensitivity.

This investigation concerns adjoint--based optimization of viscous incompressible flows (the Navier-Stokes problem) coupled with heat conduction involving change of phase (the Stefan problem) and occurring in domains with moving boundaries such as the free and solidification surfaces. This problem is motivated by optimization of advanced welding techniques used in automotive manufacturing. We characterize the sensitivity of a suitable cost functional defined for the system with respect to control (the heat input) using adjoint equations. Given that the shape of the domain is also a dependent variable, characterizing sensitivities necessitates the introduction of ``non-cylindrical'' calculus required to differentiate a cost functional defined on a variable domain. As a result, unlike the forward problem, the adjoint system is defined on a domain with a predetermined evolution in time and also involves ordinary differential equations defined on the domain boundary (``the adjoint transverse system''). We will discuss certain computational issues related to numerical solution of such adjoint problems.

This paper addresses the intrinsic uncertainty of k0 neutron activation analysis (NAA) by evaluating the partial uncertainties of the nuclear parameters and parameters given by the irradiation conditions. Uncertainty propagation factors are determined from the basic equations of the k0-NAA and the combined uncertainties are calculated using a software package specially developed for this purpose. The nuclear parameter values and respective uncertainties are taken from an IUPAC database. The uncertainties are calculated for specific conditions given at the TRIGA Mark II reactor of the Jožef Stefan Institute, for all reactions where data is available. On average, neutron reaction-specific values in the range of 1-2% were obtained for 44 elements. For 23 elements, some data are missing in the database, so the values should be obtained elsewhere. The developed approach is generally applicable to other neutron flux conditions.

Numerous cold regions water flow and energy transport models have emerged in recent years. Dissimilarities often exist in their mathematical formulations and/or numerical solution techniques, but few analytical solutions exist for benchmarking flow and energy transport models that include pore water phase change. This paper presents a detailed derivation of the Lunardini solution, an approximate analytical solution for predicting soil thawing subject to conduction, advection, and phase change. Fifteen thawing scenarios are examined by considering differences in porosity, surface temperature, Darcy velocity, and initial temperature. The accuracy of the Lunardini solution is shown to be proportional to the Stefan number. The analytical solution results obtained for soil thawing scenarios with water flow and advection are compared to those obtained from the finite element model SUTRA. Three problems, two involving the Lunardini solution and one involving the classic Neumann solution, are recommended as standard benchmarks for future model development and testing.

This work examines the finite temperature properties of the CPT-even and parity-odd electrodynamics of the standard model extension. The starting point is the partition function computed for an arbitrary and sufficiently small tensor (k{sub F}){sub {alpha}{nu}{rho}{phi}} [see R. Casana, M. M. Ferreira, Jr., J. S. Rodrigues, and M. R. O. Silva, Phys. Rev. D 80, 085026 (2009).]. After specializing the Lorentz-violating tensor (k{sub F}){sub {alpha}{nu}{rho}{phi}}for the leading-order-nonbirefringent and parity-odd coefficients, the partition function is explicitly carried out, showing that it is a power of the Maxwell partition function. Also, it is observed that the Lorentz invariance violation coefficients induce an anisotropy in the black-body angular energy density distribution. Planck's radiation law retains its usual frequency dependence and the Stefan-Boltzmann law keeps the same form, except for a global proportionality constant.

Two-dimensional solidification influenced by anisotropic heat conduction has been considered. The interfacial energy balance was derived to account for the heat transfer in one direction (x or y) depending on the temperature gradient in both the x and y directions. A parametric study was made to determine the effects of the Stefan number, aspect ratio, initial superheat, and thermal conductivity ratios on the solidification rate. Because of the imposed boundary conditions, the interface became skewed and sometimes was not a straight line between the interface position at the upper and lower adiabatic walls (spatially nonlinear along the height). This skewness depends on the thermal conductivity ratio k(yy)/k(yx). The nonlinearity of the interface is influenced by the solidification rate, aspect ratio, and k(yy/k(yx).

An explicit and unconditionally stable finite difference method for the solution of the transient inverse heat conduction problem in a semi-infinite or finite slab mediums subject to nonlinear radiation boundary conditions is presented. After measuring two interior temperature histories, the mollification method is used to determine the surface transient heat source if the energy radiation law is known. Alternatively, if the active surface is heated by a source at a rate proportional to a given function, the nonlinear surface radiation law is then recovered as a function of the interface temperature when the problem is feasible. Two typical examples corresponding to Newton cooling law and Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law respectively are illustrated. In all cases, the method predicts the surface conditions with an accuracy suitable for many practical purposes.

The design and properties of a new cryogenic set-up for laser–microwave–laser hyperfine structure spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium – an experiment performed at the CERN-Antiproton Decelerator (AD), Geneva, Switzerland – are described. Similar experiments for 4He have been performed at the AD for several years. Due to the usage of a liquid helium operated cryostat and therefore necessary refilling of coolants, a loss of up to 10% beamtime occurred. The decision was made to change the cooling system to a closed-circuit cryocooler. New hermetically sealed target cells with minimised 3He gas volume and different dimensions of the microwave resonator for measuring the 3He transitions were needed. A new set-up has been designed and tested at Stefan Meyer Institute in Vienna before being used for the 2009 and 2010 beamtimes at the AD. PMID:22267883

Almost all the analyses of tritium in Slovenia have been performed by the tritium laboratory at the Jozef Stefan Institute. Nearly 90 % of its measurements have been covered by two national programs, both approved by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration: the radioactive monitoring program in the environs of Krsko Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) and the program of global radioactive contamination monitoring in the environment. These programs include samples of groundwaters, surface waters, precipitation and drinking waters, as well as liquid and gaseous effluents from KNPP. Tritium was determined in some research projects and in hydrological studies of thermal waters, groundwater and coalmine waters. Tritium in the Karst region was mapped as well as the springs of entire territory of Slovenia. Around 5500 samples have been analyzed up to 2004.

A comprehensive investigation of heat transfer and induced fluid flow interactions during melting in a confined storage medium is reported in this paper. This study focuses on thermal characterization of a single constituent storage module rather than an entire storage system to precisely capture the energy exchange contributions of all fundamental heat transfer mechanisms during phase change process. Two-dimensional, axisymmetric, transient equations for mass, momentum and energy conservation were solved numerically by the finite volume scheme. Results report the influence of the Grashof, Stefan and Prandtl numbers on the melting dynamics of capsules with various diameters (20, 30, 40, and 50 mm). Also the effects of the shell material have been analyzed. Correlating equations for melt fraction and Nusselt number have been developed for possible general design applications.